■ 


BV4501.M8  A28  1897 
Murray,  Andrew,  1828-1917 
Absolute  surrender  :  and 
other  addresses. 


ANDREW  MURRAY'S  BOOKS. 


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The  Holiest  of  AH.  An  exposition  of  the  epistle  to  the 
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Why  Do  You  Not  Believe  ?  Words  of  instruction  and 
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Fleming  H.  Revell  Company,  Publishers. 


Absolute   Surrender 

AND  OTHER  ADDRESSES 


BY 
ANDREW  MURRAY 


"/  am  Thine,  and  all  that  I  have."'    i  Kings  xx,  4. 


FLEMING  H.   REVELL  COMPANY, 
New  York.  Chicago.  Toronto. 

Publishers  of  Evangelical  Literature. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Absolute  Surrender 5 

"The  Fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  Love"      .  .    19 

Separated  unto  the  Holy  Ghost       .        .  37 

Peter's  Repentance           .        .        .        .  .49 

Impossible  with  Man;  Possible  with  God  58 

"  O  Wretched  Man  that  I  am  ! "     .        .  .69 

"  Having  Begun  in  the  Spirit  "          .        .  79 

Kept  by  the  Power  of  God     .        .        .  .92 

"Ye  are  the  Branches"      ....  109 


Copyrighted  1897,  by  FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY. 


ABSOLUTE  SURRENDER. 

''And  Ben-'hadad  the  king  of  Syria  gathered  all 
his  host  together:  and  there  were  thirty  and  two 
kings  with  him,  and  horses,  and  chariots:  and  he 
went  up  and  besieged  Samaria,  and  warred  against  it. 
And  he  sent  messengers  to  Ahab  king  of  Israel  into 
the  qity,  and  said  unto  him,  Thus  saith  Ben  hadad, 
Thy  silver  and  thy  gold  is  mine;  thy  wives  also  and 
thy  children,  even  the  goodliest,  are  mine.  And  the 
king  of  Israel  answered  and  said.  My  lord,  O  king, 
according  to  thy  saying,  I  am  thine  and  all  that  I 
have."— i  Kings  20:1-4. 

What  Ben  hadad  asked  was  absolute  surrender; 
and  what  Ahab  gave  was  what  was  asked  of  him — 
ahsolide  surrender.  I  want  to  use  these  words: 
"My  lord,  O  king,  according  to  thy  saying,  I  am 
thine,  and  all  that  I  have,"  as  the  words  of  absolute 
surrender  with  which  every  child  of  God  ought  to 
yield  himself  to  his  Father.  We  have  heard  it  before, 
but  we  need  to  hear  it  very  definitely— the  condition 
of  God's  blessing  is  absolute  surrender  of  all  into 
His  hands.  Praise  God!  if  our  hearts  are  willing  for 
that,  there  is  no  end  to  what  God  will  do  for  us,  and 
to  the  blessing  God  will  bestow. 

Absolute  sm^render — let  me  tell  you  where  I  got 
those  words.  I  used  them  myself  often,  and  you  have 
heard  them  numberless  times.  But  in  Scotland  once  I 
was  in  a  company  where  we  were  talking  about  the 
condition   of   Christ's   Church,    and  what  the  great 

5 


ABSOLUTE  SURRENDER 


need  of  the  Church  and  of  believers  is;  and  there 
was  in  our  company  a  godly  worker  who  has  much  to 
do  in  training  workers,  and  I  asked  him  what  he 
would  say  was  the  great  need  of  the  Church,  and  the 
message  that  ought  to  be  preached.  He  answered 
very  quietly  and  simply  and  determinedly: 

"  Absolute  surrender  to  God  is  the  one  tiling.''^ 

The  words  struck  me  as  never  before.  And  that 
man  began  to  tell  how,  in  the  workers  with  whom 
he  had  to  deal,  he  finds  that  if  they  are  sound  on 
that  point,  even  though  they  be  backward,  they  are 
willing  to  be  taught  and  helped,  and  they  always  im- 
prove; whereas  others  who  are  not  sound  there  very 
often  go  back  and  leave  the  work.  The  condition 
for  obtaining  God's  full  blessing  is  absolute  surrender 
to  Him. 

And  now,  I  desire  by  God's  grace  to  give  to  you  this 
message — that  your  God  in  heaven  answers  the 
prayers  which  you  have  offered  for  blessing  on  your- 
selves and  for  blessing  on  those  around  you  by  this 
one  demand:  Are  you  iciUing  to  surrender  yourselves 
absolutely  into  His  hands?  What  is  our  answer  to 
be?  God  knows  there  are  hundreds  of  hearts  who 
have  said  it,  and  there  are  hundreds  more  who  long 
to  say  it  but  hardly  dare  to  do  so.  And  there  are 
hearts  who  have  said  it,  but  who  have  yet  miserably 
failed,  and  who  feel  themselves  condemned  because 
they  did  not  find  the  secret  of  the  power  to  live  that 
life.     May  God  have  a  word  for  all! 

Let  me  say,  first  of  all, 

GOD    CLAIMS   IT   FROM   US. 

Yes,  it  has  its  foundation  in  the  very  nature  of  God. 


ABSOLUTE  SURRENDER 


God  cannot  do  otherwise.  Who  is  God?  He  is  the 
Fountain  of  life,  the  only  Source  of  existence  and 
power  and  goodness,  and  throughout  the  universe 
there  is  nothing  good  but  what  God  works.  God  has 
created  the  sun,  and  the  moon,  and  the  stars,  and  the 
flowers,  and  the  trees,  and  the  grass;  and  are  they 
not  all  absolutely  surrendered  to  God?  Do  they  not 
allow  Gc)d  to  work  in  them  just  what  He  pleases? 
When  God  clothes  the  lily  with  its  beauty,  is  it  not 
yielded  up,  surrendered,  given  over  to  God  as  He 
works  in  it  its  beauty  ?  And  God's  redeemed  children, 
oh,  can  you  think  that  God  can  work  His  work  if 
there  is  only  half  or  a  part  of  them  surrendered? 
God  cannot  do  it.  God  is  life,  and  love,  and  blessing, 
and  power,  and  infinite  beauty,  and  God  delights  to 
communicate  Himself  to  every  child  who  is  prepared 
to  receive  Him;  but  ah!  this  one  want  of  absolute 
surrender  is  just  the  thing  that  hinders  God.  And 
now  He  comes,  and  as  God  He  claims  it. 

You  know  in  daily  life  what  absolute  surrender  is. 
You  know  that  everything  has  to  be  given  up  to  its 
special,  definite  object  and  service.  I  have  a  pen  in 
my  pocket,  and  that  pen  is  absolutely  surrendered  to 
the  one  work  of  writing,  and  that  pen  must  be  ab- 
solutely surrendered  to  my  hand  if  I  am  to  write 
properly  vv^ith  it.  If  another  holds  it  partly,  I  can- 
not write  properly.  This  coat  is  absolutely  given  up 
to  me  to  cover  my  body.  This  building  is  entirely 
given  up  to  religious  services.  And  now,  do  you  ex- 
pect that  in  your  immortal  being,  in  the  divine 
nature  that  you  have  received  by  regeneration,  God 
can  work  His  work,  every  day  and  every  hour,  unless 
you  are  entirely  given  up  to  Him?    God    cannot. 


ABSOLUTE  SURRENDER 


The  temple  of  Solomon  was  absolutely  surrendered  to 
God  when  it  was  dedicated  to  Him.  And  every- 
one of  us  is  a  temple  of  God,  in  which  God  will  dwell 
and  work  mightily  on  one  condition — absolute  sur- 
render to  Him.  God  claims  it,  God  is  worthy  of  it, 
and  without  it  God  cannot  work  His  blessed  work  in 
us. 

But  secondly,  God  not  only  claims  it,  but 

GOD   WILL   WOEK   IT   HIMSELF. 

I  am  sure  there  is  many  a  heart  that  says:  "Ah,  but 
that  absolute  surrender  implies  so  much!"  Some- 
one says:  "  Oh,  I  have  passed  through  so  much  trial 
and  suffering,  and  there  is  so  much  of  the  self-life 
still  remaining,  and  I  dare  not  face  the  entire  giving 
of  it  up,  because  I  know  it  will  cause  so  much  trouble 
and  agony." 

Alas!  alas !  that  God's  children  have  such  thoughts 
of  Him,  such  cruel  thoughts.  Oh,  I  come  to  you 
with  a  message,  fearful  and  anxious  one.  God  does 
not  ask  you  to  give  the  perfect  surrender  in  your 
strength,  or  by  the  power  of  your  will;  God  is  will- 
ing to  work  it  in  you.  Do  we  not  read:  "It  is  God 
that  worketh  in  us,  both  to  will  and  to  do  of  His 
good  pleasure  "  ?  And  that  is  what  we  should  seek 
for — to  go  on  our  faces  before  God,  until  our  hearts 
learn  to  believe  that  the  everlasting  God  Himself 
will  come  in  to  turn  out  what  is  wrong,  to  conquer 
what  is  evil,  and  to  work  what  is  well-pleasing  in  His 
blessed  sight.     God  Himself  will  work  it  in  you. 

Look  at  the  men  in  the  Old  Testament,  like 
Abraham.  Do  you  think  it  was  by  accident  that  God 
found  that  man,  the  father  of  the  Faithful  and  the 


ABSOLUTE  SURRENDER 


"f^riend  of  God,  and  that  it  was  Abraham  himself,  apart 
from  God,  who  had  such  faith  and  such  obedience 
and  such  devotion?  You  know  it  is  not  so>  God 
raised  him  up  and  prepared  him  as  an  instrument  for 
His  glory. 

Did  not  God  say  to  Pharaoh:  "  For  this  cause  have 
I  raised  thee  up,  for  to  show  in  thee  my  power"? 

And  if  God  said  that  of  him,  will  not  God  say  it 
far  more  of  every  child  of  His? 

Oh,  I  want  to  encourage  you,  and  I  want  you  to 
cast  away  every  fear.  Come  with  that  feeble  desire; 
and  if  there  is  the  fear  which  says:  "Oh,  my 
desire  is  not  strong  enough,  I  am  not  willing 
for  everything  that  may  come,  I  do  not  feel  bold 
enough  to  say  I  can  conquer  everything" — I  pray 
you,  learn  to  know  and  trust  your  God  now.  Say: 
"  My  God,  I  am  willing  that  Thou  shouldst  make  me 
willing."  If  there  is  anything  holding  you  back,  or 
any  sacrifice  you  are  afraid  of  making,  come  to  God 
now,  and  prove  how  gracious  your  God  is,  and  be 
not  afraid  that  He  will  command  from  you  what  He 
will  not    bestow. 

God  comes  and  offers  to  work  this  absolute  sur- 
render in  you.  All  these  searchings  and  hungerings 
and  longings  that  are  in  your  heart,  I  tell  you  they 
are  the  drawings  of  the  divine  magnet,  Christ  Jesus. 
He  lived  a  life  of  absolute  surrender,  He  has  got 
possession  of  you.  He  is  living  in  your  heart  by  His 
Holy  Spirit.  You  have  hindered  and  hindered  Him 
terribly,  but  He  desires  to  help  you  to  get  hold  of 
Him  entirely.  And  He  comes  and  draws  you  now  by 
His  message  and  words.  Will  you  not  come  and 
trust  Gjd  to  work  in  you  that  absolute  surrender  to 


10  ABSOLUTE  SURRENDER 

Himself?  Yes,  blessed  be  God,  He  can  do  it  and  He 
will  do  it. 

The  third  thought.  God  not  only  claims  it  and 
works  it,  but 

GOD   ACCEPTS   IT   WHEN   WE   BEING   IT   TO   HIM. 

God  works  it  in  the  secret  of  our  heart,  God  urges  us 
by  the  hidden  power  of  His  Holy  Spirit  to  come  and 
speak  it  out,  and  we  have  to  bring  and  to  yield  to 
Him  that  absolute  surrender.  But  remember,  when 
you  come  and  bring  God  that  absolute  surrender,  it 
may,  as  far  as  your  feelings  or  your  consciousness  go, 
be  a  thing  of  great  imperfection,  and  you  may  doubt 
and  hesitate  and  say: 

*'Isit  absolute?" 

But,  oh,  remember  there  was  once  a  man  to  whom 
Christ  had  said: 

"  If  thou  canst  believe,  all  things  are  possible  to 
him  that  believeth." 

And  his  heart  was  afraid,  and  he  cried  out: 

"  Lord,  I  believe,  help  Thou  mine  unbelief." 

That  was  a  faith  that  triumphed  over  the  devil, 
and  the  evil  spirit  was  cast  out.  And  if  you  come 
and  say:  "Lord,  I  yield  myself  in  absolute  surrender 
to  my  God,"  even  though  it  be  with  a  trembling 
heart  and  with  the  consciousness:  "  I  do  not  feel  the 
power,  I  do  not  feel  the  determination,  I  do  not  feel 
the  assurance,"  it  will  succeed.  Be  not  afraid,  but 
come  just  as  you  are,  and  even  in  the  midst  of  your 
trembling  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  will  work. 

Have  you  never  yet  learned  the  lesson  that  the 
Holy  Ghost  works  with  mighty  power  while  on  the 


ABSOLUTE  SURRENDER  11 

human  side  everything  appears  feeble?  Look  at  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  Gethsemane.  We  read  that 
He,  "  through  the  Eternal  Spirit,"  offered  Himself 
a  sacrifice  unto  God.  The  Almighty  Spirit  of  God 
was  enabling  Him  to  do  it.  And  yet  what  agony 
and  fear  and  exceeding  sorrow  came  over  Him,  and 
how  He  prayed!  Externally  you  can  see  no  sign  of 
the  mighty  power  of  the  Spirit,  but  the  Spirit  of  God 
was  there.  And  even  so,  while  you  are  feeble  and 
fighting  and  trembling,  in  faith  in  the  hidden  work 
of  God's  Spirit  do  not  fear,  but  yield  yourself. 

And  when  you  do  yield  yourself  in  absolute  sur- 
render, let  it  be  in  the  faith  that  God  does  now 
accept  of  it.  That  is  the  great  point,  and  that  is 
what  we  so  often  miss: — that  believers  should  be 
thus  occupied  with  God  in  this  matter  of  surren- 
der. I  pray  you,  be  occupied  with  God.  We  want 
to  get  help,  every  one  of  us,  so  that  in  our  daily 
life  God  shall  be  clearer  to  us,  God  shall  have 
the  right  place,  and  be  "  all  in  all."  And  if  we  are 
to  have  that  through  life,  let  us  begin  now  and  look 
away  from  ourselves,  and  look  up  to  God.  Let  each 
believe, — while  I,  a  poor  worm  on  earth  and  a  trem- 
bling child  of  God,  full  of  failure  and  sin  and  fear, 
bow  here,  and  no  one  knows  what  passes  through  my 
heart,  and  while  I  in  simplicity  say,  O  God,  I  accept 
Thy  terms;  I  have  pleaded  for  blessing  on  myself 
and  others,  I  have  accepted  Thy  terms  of  absolute 
surrender — while  your  heart  says  that  in  deep  si- 
lence, remember  there  is  a  God  present  that  takes 
note  of  it,  and  writes  it  down  in  His  book,  and  there 
is  a  God  present  who  at  that  very  moment  takes  pos- 


12  ABSOLUTE  SURRENDER 

session  of  you.  You  may  not  feel  it,  you  may  not 
realize  it,  but  God  takes  possession  if  you  will  trust 
Him. 

A  fourth  thought.  God  not  only  claims  it,  and 
works  it,  and  accepts  it  when  I  bring  it,  but 

GOD    MAINTAINS   IT. 

That  is  the  great  difficulty  with  many.  People 
say:  "I  have  often  been  stirred  at  a  meeting,  or  at 
a  convention,  and  I  have  consecrated  myself  to  God, 
but  it  has  passed  away.  I  know  it  may  last  for  a 
week  or  for  a  month,  but  away  it  fades,  and  after  a 
time  it  is  all  gone." 

But  listen!  It  is  because  you  do  not  believe  what  I 
am  now  going  to  tell  you  and  remind  you  of.  When 
God  has  begun  the  work  of  absolute  surrender  in 
you,  and  when  God  has  accepted  your  surrender,  then 
God  holds  Himself  bound  to  care  for  it  and  to  keep 
it.     Will  you  believe  that? 

In  this  matter  of  surrender  there  are  two,  God  and 
I — I  a  worm,  God  the  everlasting  and  omnipotent 
Jehovah.  Worm,  will  you  be  afraid  to  trust  your- 
self to  this  mighty  God  now?  God  is  willing.  Do 
you  not  believe  that  He  can  keep  you  continually, 
day  by  day,  and  moment  by  moment? 

Moment  by  moment  I'm  kept  in  His  love; 
Moment  by  moment  I've  life  from  above. 

If  God  allows  the  sun  to  shine  upon  you  moment 
by  moment,  without  intermission,  will  not  God  let 
His  life  shine  upon  you  every  moment?  And  why 
have  you  not  experienced  it?  Because  you  have  not 
trusted  God  for  it,  and  you  do  not  surrender  yourself 
absolutely  to  God  in  that  trust. 


ABSOLUTE  SURRENDER  13 

A  life  of  absolute  surrender  has  its  difficulties.  I 
do  not  deny  that.  Yea,  it  has  something  far  more 
than  difficulties;  it  is  a  life  that  with  men  is  abso- 
lutely impossible.  But  by  the  grace  of  God,  by  the 
power  of  God,  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  dwell- 
ing in  us,  jt  is  a  life  to  which  we  are  destined,  and  a 
life  that  is  possible  for  us,  praise  God!  Let  us  be- 
lieve that  God  will  maintain  it. 

Some  of  you  read  recently  the  words  of  that  aged 
saint  who,  on  his  ninetieth  birthday,  told  of  all  God's 
goodness  to  him — I  mean  George  Mtiller.  What  did 
he  say  he  believed  to  be  the  secret  of  his  hapxjiness, 
and  of  all  the  blessing  with  which  God  had  visited 
him?  He  said  he  believed  there  were  two  reasons. 
The  one  was  that  he  had  been  enabled  by  grace  to 
maintain  a  good  conscience  before  God  day  by  day; 
the  other  was,  that  he  was  a  lover  of  God's  Word. 
Ah,  yes,  a  good  conscience  in  unfeigned  obedience  to 
God  day  by  day,  and  fellowship  with  God  every  day 
in  His  Word,  and  prayer — that  is  a  life  of  absolute 
surrender. 

Such  a  life  has  two  sides — on  the  one  side,  abso- 
lute surrender  to  work  what  God  wants  you  to  do; 
on  the  other  side,  to  let  God  work  what  He  wants 
to  do. 

First,  to  do  what  God  wants  you  to  do. 

Give  up  yourselves  absolutely  to  the  will  of  God. 
You  know  something  of  that  will;  not  enough,  far 
from  all.  But  say  absolutely  to  the  Lord  God:  "  By 
Thy  grace  I  desire  to  do  Thy  will  in  everything, 
every  moment  of  every  day."  Say:  "  Lord  God,  not 
a  word  upon  my  tongue  but  for  Thy  glory,  not  a 
movement  of  my  temper  but  for  Thy  glory,  not  an 


14  ABSOLUTE  SURRENDER 

affection  of  love  or  hate  in  my  heart  but  for  Thy 
glory,  and  according  to  Thy  blessed  will." 

Someone  says:  "Do  you  think  that  possible?" 

I  ask,  What  has  God  promised  you,  and  what  can 
God  do  to  fill  a  vessel  absolutely  surrendered  to  Him? 
Oh,  God  wants  to  bless  you  in  a  way  beyond  what 
you  expect.  From  the  beginning  ear  hath  not  heard, 
neither  hath  the  eye  seen,  what  God  hath  prepared 
for  them  that  wait  for  Him.  God  has  prepared 
unheard-of  things  you  never  can  think  of;  bless- 
ings much  more  wonderful  than  you  can  imagine, 
more  mighty  than  you  can  conceive.  They  are  di- 
vine blessings.     Oh,  say  now: 

"  I  give  myself  absolutely  to  God,  to  His  will,  to  do 
only  what  God  wants." 

It  is  God  who  will  enable  you  to  carry  out  the  sur- 
render. 

And,  on  the  other  side,  come  and  say:  *'  I  give  my- 
self absolutely  to  God,  to  let  Him  work  in  me  to  will 
and  to  do  of  His  good  pleasure,  as  He  has  promised 
to  do." 

Yes,  the  living  God  wants  to  work  in  His  children 
in  a  way  that  we  cannot  understand,  but  that  God's 
Word  has  revealed,  and  He  wants  to  work  in  us  every 
moment  of  the  day.  God  is  willing  to  maintain  our 
life.  Only  let  our  absolute  surrender  be  one  of  sim- 
ple, childlike,  and  unbounded  trust. 

The  last  thought.    This  absolute  surrender  to  God 

WILL   WONDERFULLY   BLESS   US. 

What  Ahab  said  to  his  enemy.  King  Ben=hadad, — 
"  My  lord,  O  king,  according  to  thy  word  I  am  thine, 
and  all  that  I  have " — shall  we  not  say  to  our  God 


ABSOLUTE  SURRENDER  15 

and  loving  Father?  If  we  do  say  it,  God's  blessing 
will  come  upon  us.  God  wants  us  to  be  separate 
from  the  world;  we  are  called  to  come  out  from  the 
world  that  hates  God.  Come  out  for  God,  and  say: 
"Lord,  anything  for  Thee."  If  you  say  that  with 
prayer,  and  speak  that  into  God's  ear,  He  will  accept 
it,  and  He  will  teach  you  what  it  means. 

I  say  again,  God  will  bless  you.  You  have  been 
praying  for  blessing.  But  do  remember,  there  must 
be  absolute  surrender.  At  every  tea=table  you  see  it. 
Why  is  tea  poured  into  that  cup?  Because  it  is 
empty,  and  given  up  for  the  tea.  But  put  ink,  or 
vinegar,  or  wine  into  it,  and  will  they  pour  the  tea 
into  the  vessel?  And  can  God  fill  you,  can  God  bless 
you  if  you  are  not  absolutely  surrendered  to  Him? 
He  cannot.  Let  us  believe  God  has  wonderful  bless- 
ings for  us,  if  we  will  but  stand  up  for  God,  and  say, 
be  it  with  a  trembling  will,  yet  with  a  believing 
heart: 

"  O  God,  I  accept  Thy  demands.  I  am  thine  and 
all  that  I  have.  Absolute  surrender  is  what  my  soul 
yields  to  Thee  by  divine  grace." 

You  may  not  have  such  strong  and  clear  feelings 
of  deliverance  as  you  would  desire  to  have,  but  hum- 
ble yourselves  in  His  sight,  and  acknowledge  that 
you  have  grieved  the  Holy  Spirit  by  your  self-will, 
self=confidence,  and  self^elBPort.  Bow  humbly  before 
Him  in  the  confession  of  that,  and  ask  him  to  break 
the  heart  and  to  bring  you  into  the  dust  before  Him. 
Then,  as  you  bow  before  Him,  just  accept  God's 
teaching  that  in  your  flesh  "  there  dwelleth  no  good 
thing,"  and  that  nothing  will  help  you  except  an- 
other life  which  must  come  in.     You  must  deny  self 


16  ABSOLUTE  SURRENDER 

once  for  all.  Denying  self  must  every  moment  be 
the  power  of  your  life,  and  then  Christ  will  come  in 
and  take  possession  of  you. 

When  was  Peter  delivered?  When  was  the  change 
accomplished?  The  change  began  with  Peter  weep- 
ing, and  the  Holy  Ghost  came  down  and  filled  his 
heart. 

God  the  Father  loves  to  give  us  the  power  of  the 
Spirit.  We  have  the  Spirit  of  God  dwelling  within 
us.  We  come  to  God  confessing  that,  and  praising 
God  for  it;  and  yet  confessing  how  we  have  grieved 
the  Spirit.  And  then  we  bow  our  knees  to  the 
Father  to  ask  that  He  would  strengthen  us  with  all 
might  by  the  Spirit  in  the  inner  man,  and  that  He 
would  fill  us  with  His  mighty  power.  And  as  the 
Spirit  reveals  Christ  to  us,  Christ  comes  to  live  in 
our  hearts  for  ever,  and  the  self4ife  is  cast  out. 

Let  us  bow  before  God  in  humiliation,  and  in  that 
humiliation  confess  before  Him  the  state  of  the 
whole  Church.  No  words  can  tell  the  sad  state  of 
the  Church  of  Christ  on  earth.  I  wish  I  had  words 
to  speak  what  I  sometimes  feel  about  it.  Just  think 
of  the  Christians  around  you.  I  do  not  speak  of 
nominal  Christians,  or  of  professing  Christians,  but 
I  speak  of  hundreds  and  thousands  of  honest,  ear- 
nest Christians  who  are  not  living  a  life  in  the 
power  of  God  or  to  His  glory.  So  little  power,  so 
little  devotion  or  consecration  to  God,  so  little  con- 
ception of  the  truth  that  a  Christian  is  a  man  utter- 
ly surrendered  to  God's  will!  Oh,  we  want  to  con- 
fess the  sins  of  God's  people  around  us,  and  to  hum- 
ble ourselves.  We  are  members  of  that  sickly  body, 
and  the  sickliness  of  the  body   will  hinder  us,  and 


ABSOLUTE  SURRENDER  17 

break  us  down,  unless  we  come  to  God,  and  in  con- 
fession separate  ourselves  from  partnership  with 
worldliness,  with  coldness  towards  each  other,  unless 
we  give  up  ourselves  to  be  entirely  and  wholly  for 
God. 

How  much  Christian  work  is  being  done  in  the 
spirit  of  the  flesh,  and  in  the  power  of  self!  How 
much  work,  day  by  day,  in  which  human  energy — 
our  will  and  our  thoughts  about  the  work — is  contin- 
ually manifested,  and  in  which  there  is  but  little  of 
waiting  upon  God,  and  upon  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost!  Let  us  make  confession.  But  as  we  confess 
the  state  of  the  Church  and  the  feebleness  and  sin- 
fulness of  work  for  God  among  us,  let  us  come  back 
to  ourselves.  Who  is  there  who  truly  longs  to  be 
delivered  from  the  power  of  the  self4ife,  who  truly 
acknowledges  that  it  is  the  power  of  self  and  the  flesh, 
and  who  is  willing  to  cast  all  at  the  feet  of  Christ? 
There  is  deliverance. 

I  heard  of  one  who  had  been  an  earnest  Christian, 
and  who  spoke  about  the  "  cruel  "  thought  of  separa- 
tion and  death.  But  you  do  not  think  that,  do  you? 
What  are  we  to  think  of  separation  and  death? 
This: — Death  was  the  path  to  glory  for  Christ.  For 
the  joy  set  before  Him  He  endured  the  cross.  The 
cross  was  the  birthplace  of  His  everlasting  glory. 
Do  you  love  Christ?  Do  you  long  to  be  in  Christ, 
and  not  like  Him?  Let  death  be  to  you  the  most 
desirable  thing  on  earth ;  death  to  self,  and  fellowship 
with  Christ.  Separation — do  you  think  it  a  hard 
thing  to  be  called  to  be  entirely  free  from  the  world, 
and  by  that  separation  to  be  united  to  God  and  His 
love,  by  separation  to  become  prepared  for  living  and 


18  ABSOLUTE  SURRENDER 

walking  with  God  every  day?  Surely  one  ought  to 
say: 

"Anything  to  bring  me  to  separation,  to  death,  for 
a  life  of  full  fellowship  with  God  and  Christ." 

Oh!  come  and  cast  this  self -life  and  flesh-life  at 
the  feet  of  Jesns.  Then  trust  Him.  Do  not  worry 
yourselves  with  trying  to  understand  all  about  it,  but 
come  in  the  living  faith  that  Christ  will  come  into 
you  with  the  power  of  His  death  and  the  power  of 
His  life;  and  then  the  Holy  Spirit  will  bring  the 
whole  Christ — Christ  crucified  and  Christ  risen  and 
living  in  glory — into  your  heart. 


"THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  IS  LOVE." 

I  want  to  look  at  the  fact  of  a  life  filled  with  the 
Holy  Spirit  more  from  the  practical  side,  and  to  show 
how  this  life  will  show  itself  in  our  daily  walk  and 
conduct. 

Under  the  Old  Testament  you  know  the  Holy 
Spirit  often  came  upon  men  as  a  Divine  Spirit  of 
revelation,  to  reveal  the  mysteries  of  God,  or  for 
power  to  do  the  work  of  God.  But  He  did  not  then 
dwell  in  them.  Now,  many  just  want  the  Old  Testa- 
ment gift  of  power  for  work,  but  know  very  little  of 
the  New  Testament  gift  of  the  indwelling  Spirit,  ani- 
mating and  renewing  the  whole  life.  When  God 
gives  the  Holy  Spirit,  His  great  object  is  the  forma- 
tion of  a  holy  character.  It  is  a  gift  of  a  holy 
mind  and  spiritual  disposition,  and  what  we  need 
above  everything  else,  is  to  say: 

"I  must  have  the  Holy  Spirit  sanctifying  my 
whole  inner  life  if  I  am  really  to  live  for  God's 
glory." 

You  might  say  that  when  Christ  promised  the 
Spirit  to  the  disciples  He  did  so  that  they  might 
have  power  to  be  witnesses.  True,  but  then  they  re- 
ceived the  Holy  Ghost  in  such  heavenly  power  and 
reality  that  He  took  possession  of  their  whole  being 
at  once  and  so  fitted  them  as  holy  men  for  doing  the 
work  with  power  as  they  had  to  do  it.  Christ  spoke 
of  power  to  the  disciples,  but  it  was  the  Spirit  filling 
their  whole  being  that  worked  the  power. 

19 


20  ''THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  IS  LOVE'' 

I  wish  now  to  dwell  upon  the  passage  found  in 
Gal.  5  :  22: 

"  The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love." 

We  read  that  "Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law," 
and  my  desire  is  to  speak  on  love  as  a  fruit  of  the 
Spirit  with  a  twofold  object.  One  is  that  this  word 
may  be  a  searchlight  in  our  hearts,  and  give  us  a  test 
by  which  to  try  all  our  thoughts  about  the  Holy 
Spirit  and  all  our  experience  of  the  holy  life.  Let  us 
try  ourselves  by  this  word.  Has  this  been  our  daily 
habit,  to  seek  the  being  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit  as 
the  Spirit  of  love?  "  The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love." 
Has  it  been  our  experience  that  the  more  we  have  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  the  more  loving  we  become?  In 
claiming  the  Holy  Spirit  we  should  make  this  the 
first  object  of  our  expectation.  The  Holy  Spirit 
comes  as  a  Spirit  of  love. 

Oh,  if  this  were  true  in  the  church  of  Christ  how 
different  her  state  would  be!  May  God  help  us  to 
get  hold  of  this  simple  heavenly  truth,  that  the  fruit 
of  the  Spirit  is  a  love  which  appears  in  the  life,  and 
that  just  as  the  Holy  Spirit  gets  real  possession  of 
the  life,  the  heart  will  be  filled  wnth  real,  divine,  uni- 
versal love. 

One  of  the  great  causes  why  God  cannot  bless  His 
Church  is  the  luant  of  love.  When  the  body  is  di- 
vided, there  cannot  be  strength.  In  the  time  of  their 
great  religious  wars,  when  Holland  stood  out  so  no- 
bly against  Spain,  one  of  their  mottoes  was:  "  Unity 
gives  strength."  It  is  only  when  God's  people  stand 
as  one  body,  one  before  God  in  the  fellowship  of  love, 
one  towards  another  in  deep  affection,  one  before  the 
world  in  a  love  that  the  world  can  see — it  is  only  then 


''THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  IS  LOVE''  21 

that  they  will  have  power  to  secure  the  blessing 
which  they  ask  of  God.  Remember  that  if  a  vessel 
that  ought  to  be  one  whole  is  cracked  into  many 
pieces,  it  cannot  be  filled.  You  can  take  a  potsherd, 
one  ijart  of  a  vessel,  and  dip  out  a  little  water  into 
that,  but  if  you  want  the  vessel  full,  the  vessel  must 
be  whole.  That  is  literally  true  of  Christ's  Church, 
and  if  there  is  one  thing  we  must  pray  for  still,  it  is 
this:  Lord  melt  us  together  into  one  by  the  power  of 
the  Holy  Spirit;  let  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  at  Pente- 
cost made  them  ail  of  one  heart  and  one  soul,  do  His 
blessed  work  among  us.  Praise  God,  we  can  love 
each  other  in  a  divine  love,  for  "  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit 
is  love,"  Give  yourselves  up  to  love,  and  the  Holy 
Spirit  will  come;  receive  the  Spirit,  and  He  will 
teach  you  to  love  more. 

I. 

Now,  why  is  it  that  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love? 
Because  God  is  love. 

And  what  does  that  mean? 

It  is  the  very  nature  and  being  of  God  to  delight 
in  communicating  Himself.  God  has  no  selfishness, 
God  keeps  nothing  to  Himself.  God's  nature  is  to 
be  always  giving.  In  the  sun  and  the  moon  and  the 
stars,  in  every  flower  you  see  it,  in  every  bird  in  the 
air,  in  every  fish  in  the  sea.  God  communicates  life 
to  His  creatures.  And  the  angels  around  His  throne, 
the  seraphim  and  cherubim  who  are  flames  of  fire — 
whence  have  they  their  glory?  It  is  because  God  is 
love,  and  He  imparts  to  them  of  His  brightness  and 
His  blessedness.  And  we.  His  redeemed  children — 
God  delights  to  pour  His  love  into  us.      And  why? 


22  "  THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  IS  LOVE'' 

Because,  as  I  said,  God  keeps  nothing  for  Himself. 
From  eternity  God  had  His  only  begotten  Son,  and 
the  Father  gave  Him  all  things,  and  nothing  that 
God  had  was  kept  back.     "  God  is  love." 

One  of  the  old  Church  fathers  said  that  we  cannot 
better  understand  the  Trinity  than  as  a  revelation  of 
divine  love — the  Father  the  loving  One,  the  Fountain 
of  love;  the  Son  the  beloved  one,  the  Keservoir  of 
love,  in  whom  the  love  was  poured  out;  and  the 
Spirit  the  living  love  that  united  both  and  then  over- 
flowed into  this  world.  The  Spirit  of  Pentecost,  the 
Spirit  of  the  Father,  and  the  Spirit  of  the  Son  is 
love.  And  when  the  Holy  Spirit  comes  to  us  and  to 
other  men,  will  He  be  less  a  Spirit  of  love  than  He 
is  in  God?  It  cannot  be;  He  cannot  change  His  na- 
ture. The  Spirit  of  God  is  love,  and  "  the  fruit  of 
the  Spirit  is  love." 

II. 

Why  is  that  so?  That  was  the  one  great  need  of 
mankind,  that  was  the  thing  which  Christ's  redemp- 
tion came  to  accomplish:  to  restore  love  to  this 
world. 

When  man  sinned,  why  was  it  that  he  sinned? 
Selfishness  triumphed  —  he  sought  self  instead  of 
God.  And  just  look!  Adam  at  once  begins  to  accuse 
the  woman  of  having  led  him  astray.  Love  to  God 
had  gone,  love  to  man  was  lost.  Look  again:  of  the 
first  two  children  of  Adam,  the  one  becomes  a  mur- 
derer of  his  brother. 

Does  not  that  teach  us  that  sin  had  robbed  the 
world  of  love  ?  Ah !  what  a  proof  the  history  of  the 
world  has  been  of  love  having  been  lost!     There  may 


"  THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  IS  LOVE''  23 

have  been  beautiful  examples  of  love  even  among  the 
heathen,  but  only  as  a  little  remnant  of  what  was 
lost.  One  of  the  worst  things  sin  did  for  man  was  to 
make  him  selfish,  for  selfishness  cannot  love. 

The  Lord  Jesus  Christ  came  down  from  heaven  as 
the  Son  of  God's  love.  "  God  so  loved  the  world  that 
He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son."  God's  Son  came 
to  show  what  love  is,  and  He  lived  a  life  of  love  here 
upon  earth  in  fellowship  with  His  disciples,  in  com- 
passion over  the  poor  and  miserable,  in  love  even  to 
His  enemies,  and  He  died  the  death  of  love.  And 
when  He  went  to  heaven,  whom  did  He  send  down? 
The  Spirit  of  love,  to  come  and  banish  selfishness 
and  envy  and  pride,  and  bri  ng  the  love  of  God  into 
the  hearts  of  men.     "  The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love." 

And  what  was  the  preparation  for  the  promise  of 
the  Holy  Spirit?  You  know  that  promise  as  found 
in  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  John's  gospel.  But  re- 
member what  precedes,  in  the  thirteenth  chapter. 
Before  Christ  promised  the  Holy  Si3irit  He  gave  a 
new  commandment,  and  about  that  new  command- 
ment He  said  wonderful  things.  One  thing  was: 
"  Even  as  I  have  loved  you,  so  love  ye  one  another." 
To  them  His  dying  love  was  to  be  the  only  law  of 
their  conduct  and  intercourse  with  each  other. 
What  a  message  to  those  fishermen,  to  those  men  full 
of  pride  and  selfishness!  "Learn  to  love  each 
other,"  said  Christ,  "  as  I  have  loved  you."  And  by 
the  grace  of  God  they  did  it.  When  Pentecost  came 
they  were  of  one  heart  and  one  soul.  Christ  did  it 
for  them. 

And  now  He  calls  us  to  dwell  and  to  walk  in  love. 
He  demands  that  though  a  man  hate   you,   still   you 


24  ''THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  IS  LOVE'' 

love  him.  True  love  cannot  be  conquered  by  any- 
thing in  heaven  or  upon  the  earth.  The  more  hatred 
there  is,  the  more  love  triumphs  through  it  all  and 
shows  its  true  nature.  This  is  the  love  that  Christ 
commanded  His  disciples  to  exercise, 

What  more  did  He  say?  "By  this  shall  all  men 
know  that  ye  are  my  disciples,  if  ye  have  love  one  to 
another," 

You  all  know  what  it  is  to  wear  a  badge.  Many  of 
you  wear  a  blue  ribbon  badge,  and  everybody  knows 
what  that  means.  And  Christ  said  to  His  disciples 
in  effect: 

"  I  give  you  a  badge,  and  that  badge  is 

LOVE. 

That  is  to  be  your  mark.  It  is  the  only  thing  in 
heaven  or  on  earth  by  which  men  can  know  me." 

Oh!  do  not  we  begin  to  fear  that  love  has  fled  from 
the  earth?  That  if  we  were  to  ask  the  world:  "Have 
you  seen  us  wear  the  badge  of  love?"  the  world  would 
say:  "No;  what  we  have  heard  of  the  Church  of 
Christ  is  that  there  is  not  a  place  where  there  is  no 
quarreling  and  separation."  Let  us  ask  God  with  one 
heart  that  we  may  wear  the  badge  of  Jesus'  love. 
God  is  able  to  give  it. 

III. 

"  The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love."  Why?  Be- 
cause nothing  hut  love  can  expel  and  conquer  our 
selfishness. 

Self  is  the  great  curse,  whether  in  its  relation  to 
God,  or  to  our  fellow  men  in  general,  or  to  fellow^ 
Christians;    thinking  of  ourselves  and  seeking  our 


''THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  IS  LOVE''  25 

own.  Self  is  our  greatest  curse.  But,  praise  God, 
Christ  came  to  redeem  us  from  self.  We  sometimes 
talk  about  deliverance  from  the  self^life — and  thank 
Grod  for  every  word  that  can  be  said  about  it  to  help 
us — but  I  am  afraid  some  people  think  deliverance 
from  the  6elf4ife  means  that  now  they  are  going  to 
have  no  longer  any  trouble  in  serving  God;  and  they 
forget  that  deliverance  from  selfdife  means  to  be  a 
vessel  overflowing  with  love  to  everybody  all  the  day. 

And  there  you  have  the  reason  why  many  people 
pray  for  the  j^ower  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  they  get 
something,  but  oh,  so  little!  because  they  prayed  for 
power  for  work,  and  power  for  blessing,  but  they 
have  not  prayed  for  power  for  full  deliverance  from 
self.  That  means  not  only  the  righteous  self  in  inter- 
course with  God,  but  the  unloving  self  in  intercourse 
with  men.  And  there  is  deliverance.  "  The  fruit  of 
the  Spirit  is  love."  I  bring  you  the  glorious  promise 
of  Christ  that  He  is  able  to  fill  our  hearts  with 
love. 

A  great  many  of  us  try  hard  at  times  to  love.  We 
try  to  force  ourselves  to  love,  and  I  do  not  aay  that  is 
wrong;  it  is  better  than  nothing.  But  the  end  of  it 
is  always  very  sad.  ''  I  fail  continually,"  such  an  one 
must  confess.  And  v/hat  is  the  reason?  The  reason 
is  simply  this:  Because  they  have  never  ^.earned  to 
believe  and  accept  the  truth  that  the  Holy  1  Spirit  can 
pour  God's  love  into  their  heart.  That  bh^isod  text; 
often  it  has  been  limited! — "The  love  of  Go4  is  shed 
abroad  in  our  hearts."  It  has  often  been  understood 
in  this  sense:  It  means  the  love  of  God  to  iw^^  Oh, 
what  a  limitation!  That  is  only  the  beginning.  The 
love  of  God  is  always  the  love  of  God  in  its  '^ii*;Wty, 


26  "  THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  IS  LOVE'' 

in  its  fulness  as  an  indwelling  power,  a  love  of 
God  to  me  that  leaps  back  to  Him  in  love,  and 
overflows  to  my  fellow  men  in  love — God's  love  to 
me,  and  my  love  to  God,  and  my  love  to  my  fellow 
men.     The  three  are  one;  you  cannot  separate  them. 

Do  believe  that  the  love  of  God  can  be  shed  abroad 
in  your  heart  and  mine  so  that  we  can  love  all  the 
day. 

"Ah!"  you  say,  "how  little  I  have  understood 
that!" 

Why  is  a  lamb  always  gentle?  Because  that  is  its 
nature.  Does  it  cost  the  lamb  any  trouble  to  be 
gentle?  No.  Why  not?  It  is  so  beautiful  and 
gentle.  Has  a  lamb  to  study  to  be  gentle?  No. 
Why  does  that  come  so  easy?  It  is  its  nature.  And 
a  wolf — why  does  it  cost  a  wolf  no  trouble  to  be 
cruel,  and  to  put  its  fangs  into  the  poor  lamb  or 
sheep?  Because  that  is  its  nature.  It  has  not  to 
summon  up  its  courage;  the  wolf-nature  is  there. 

And  how  can  I  learn  to  love?  Never  until  the 
Spirit  of  God  fills  my  heart  with  God's  love,  and  I 
begin  to  long  for  God's  love  in  a  very  different 
sense  from  which  I  have  sought  it  so  selfishly,  as 
a  comfort  and  a  joy  and  a  happiness  and  a  pleas- 
ure to  myself;  never  until  I  begin  to  learn  that 
"  God  is  love,"  and  to  claim  it,  and  receive  it  as  an 
indvrelling  power  for  self-sacrifice;  never  until  I  be- 
gin to  see  that  my  glory,  my  blessedness,  is  to  be 
like  God  and  like  Christ,  in  giving  up  everything  in 
myself  for  my  fellow-men.  May  God  teach  us  that! 
Oh,  the  divine  blessedness  of  the  love  with  which  the 
Holy  Spirit  can  fill  our  hearts!  "The  fruit  of  the 
Spirit  is  love." 


''THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  IS  LOVE''  21 

IV. 

Once  again  I  ask,  Why  must  this  be  so?  And  my 
answer  is:  Without  this  we  cannot  live  the  daily  life 
of  love. 

How  often,  when  we  speak  about  the  consecrated 
life,  we  have  to  speak  about  temper,  and  some  people 
have  sometimes  said: 

"You  make  too  much  of  temper." 

I  do  not  think  we  can  make  too  much  of  it.  Do 
you  see  yonder  clock?  You  know  what  those  hands 
mean.  The  hands  tell  me  what  is  within  the  clock, 
and  if  I  see  that  the  hands  stand  still,  and  that  the 
hands  point  wrong,  and  that  the  clock  is  slow  or  fast, 
I  say  that  there  is  something  inside  the  clock  that  is 
wrong.  And  temper  is  just  like  the  revelation  that 
the  clock  gives  of  what  is  within.  Temper  is  a  proof 
whether  the  love  of  Christ  is  filling  the  heart,  or  not. 
How  many  there  are  who  find  it  easier  in  church,  or 
in  the  prayer-meeting,  or  in  work  for  the  Lord,  dili- 
gent, earnest  work,  to  be  holy  and  happy  than  in  the 
daily  life  with  wife  and  children  and  servant;  easier 
to  be  holy  and  happy  outside  the  home  than  in  it. 
Where  is  the  love  of  God  ?  In  Christ.  God  has  pre- 
pared for  us  a  wonderful  redemption  in  Christ,  and 
He  longs  to  make  something  supernatural  of  us. 
Have  we  learned  to  long  for  it,  and  ask  for  it,  and 
expect  it  in  its  fulness? 

Then  there  is  the  tongue!  We  sometimes  speak 
of  the  tongue  when  we  talk  of  the  better  life  and  the 
restful  life,  but  just  think  what  liberty  many  Chris- 
tians give  to  their  tongues.     They  say: 

"  I  have  a  right  to  think  what  I  like," 


28  "  THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  IS  LOVE" 

When  they  speak  about  each  other,  when  they 
speak  about  their  neighbors,  when  they  speak  about 
other  Christians,  how  often  there  are  sharp  remarks! 
God  keep  me  from  saying  anything  that  would  be 
unloving;  God  shut  my  mouth  if  I  am  not  to  speak 
in  tender  love.  But  what  I  am  saying  is  a  fact. 
How  often  there  is  found  among  Christians  who  are 
banded  together  in  work,  sharp  criticism,  sharp  judg- 
ment, hasty  opinion,  unloving  words,  secret  contempt 
of  each  other,  secret  condemnation  of  each  other. 
Oh,  just  as  a  mother's  love  covers  her  children  and 
delights  in  them  and  has  the  tenderest  compassion 
with  their  foibles  or  failures,  so  there  ought  to  be  in 
the  heart  of  every  believer  a  motherly  love  toward 
every  brother  and  sister  in  Christ:  Have  you  aimed 
at  that?  Have  you  sought  it?  Have  you  ever 
pleaded  for  it?  Jesus  Christ  said:  "  As  I  have  loved 
you  .  .  .  love  one  another."  And  He  did  not 
put  that  among  the  other  commandments,  but  He  said 
in  effect: 

"  That  is  a  new  commandment,  the  one  command- 
ment: Love  one  another  as  I  have  loved  you." 

It  is  in  our  daily  life  and  conduct  that  the  fruit  of 
the  Spirit  is  love.  From  that  there  comes  all  the 
graces  and  virtues  in  which  love  is  manifested:  joy, 
peace,  longsuffering,  gentleness,  goodness;  no  sharp- 
ness or  hardness  in  your  tone,  no  unkindness  or  self- 
ishness; meekness  before  God  and  man.  You  see 
that  all  these  are  the  gentler  virtues.  I  have  often 
thought  as  I  read  those  words  in  Colossians,  "  Put  on 
therefore  as  the  elect  of  God,  holy  and  beloved, 
bowels  of  mercies,  kindness,  humbleness  of  mind, 
meekness,  longsuffering,"  that  if  we  had  written,  we 


''THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  IS  LOVE''  29 

should  have  put  in  the  foreground  the  manly  virtues, 
such  as  zeal,  courage  and  diligence;  but  we  need  to 
see  how  the  gentler,  the  most  womanly  virtues  are 
specially  connected  with  dependence  upon  the  Holy 
Spirit.  These  are  indeed  heavenly  graces.  They 
never  were  found  in  the  heathen  world.  Christ  was 
needed  to  come  from  heaven  to  teach  us.  Your 
blessedness  is  longsuffering,  meekness,  kindness; 
your  glory  is  humility  before  God.  The  fruit  of  the 
Spirit,  that  He  brought  from  heaven  out  of  the 
heart  of  the  crucified  Christ,  and  that  He  gives  in 
our  heart,  is  first  and  foremost — love. 

You  know  what  John  says:  "No  man  hath  seen 
God  at  any  time.  If  we  love  one  another,  God 
dwelleth  in  us."  That  is,  I  cannot  see  God,  but  as 
a  compensation  I  can  see  my  brother,  and  if  I  love 
him  God  dwells  in  me.  Is  that  really  true?  That  I 
cannot  see  God,  but  I  must  love  my  brother,  and 
God  will  dwell  in  me?  Loving  my  brother  is  the 
w^ay  to  real  fellowshij)  with  God.  You  know  what 
John  further  says  in  that  most  solemn  test,  1  John, 
4 :  20 :  "  If  a  man  say,  I  love  God,  and  hateth  his  brother, 
he  is  a  liar;  for  he  that  loveth  not  his  brother  whom 
he  hath  seen,  how  can  he  love  God  whom  he  hath 
not  seen?"  There  is  a  brother,  a  most  unlovable 
man.  He  worries  you  every  time  you  meet  him. 
He  is  of  the  very  opposite  disposition  to  yours.  You 
are  a  careful  business  man,  and  you  have  to  do  with 
him  in  your  business.  He  is  most  untidy,  un- 
businesS'like.     You  say: 

"  I  cannot  love  him." 

Oh  friend,  you  have  not  learned  the  lesson  that 
Christ  wanted  to  teach  above    everything.     Let   a 


30  ''THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  IS  LOVE'' 

man  be  what  he  will,  you  are  to  love  him.  Love  is 
to  be  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  all  the  day  and  every 
day.  Yes,  listen!  if  a  man  loves  not  his  brother 
whom  he  hath  seen,  if  you  don't  love  that  unlovable 
man  whom  you  have  seen,  how  can  you  love  God 
whom  you  have  not  seen?  You  can  deceive  your- 
self with  beautiful  thoughts  about  loving  God.  You 
must  prove  your  love  to  God  by  your  love  to  your 
brother;  that  is  the  one  standard  by  which  God  will 
judge  your  love  to  Him.  If  the  love  of  God  is  in 
your  heart  you  will  love  your  brother.  The  fruit  of 
the  Spirit  is  love. 

And  what  is  the  reason  that  God's  Holy  Spirit 
cannot  come  in  power?     Is  it  not  possible? 

You  remember  the  comparison  I  used  in  speaking 
of  the  vessel.  I  can  dip  a  little  water  into  a  potsherd, 
a  bit  of  a  vessel;  but  if  a  vessel  is  to  be  full  it  must 
be  unbroken.  And  the  children  of  God,  wherever 
they  come  together,  to  whatever  church  or  mission 
or  society  they  belong,  must  love  each  other  in- 
tensely, or  the  Spirit  of  God  cannot  do  His  work. 
We  talk  about  grieving  the  Spirit  of  God  by  worldli- 
ness  and  ritualism  and  formality  and  error  and  in- 
difference, but,  I  tell  you,  the  one  thing  above  every- 
thing that  grieves  God's  Spirit  is  this  want  of  love. 
Let  every  heart  search  itself,  and  ask  that  God  may 
search  it. 


Why  are  we  taught  that  "  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is 
love"?  Because  the  Spirit  of  God  has  come  to  make 
our  daily  life  an  exhibition  of  divine  poicer  and  a 
revelation  of  what  God  can  do  for  His  children. 


"  THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  IS  LOVE''  31 

In  the  second  and  the  fourth  chapters  of  Acts  we 
read  that  the  disciples  were  of  one  heart  and  of  one 
soul.  During  the  three  years  they  had  walked  with 
Christ  they  never  had  been  in  that  spirit.  All 
Christ's  teaching  could  not  make  them  of  one  heart 
and  one  soul.  But  the  Holy  Spirit  came  from  heaven 
and  shed  the  love  of  God  in  their  hearts,  and  they 
were  of  one  heart  and  one  soul.  The  same  Holy 
Spirit  that  brought  the  love  of  heaven  into  their 
hearts  must  fill  us  too.  Nothing  less  will  do.  Even 
as  Christ  did,  one  might  preach  love  for  three  years 
with^he  tongue  of  an  angel,  but  that  would  not 
teach  any  man  to  love  unless  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  should  come  upon  him  to  bring  the  love  of 
heaven  into  his  heart. 

Think  of  the  Church  at  large.  What  divisions! 
Think  of  the  different  bodies.  Take  the  question  of 
holiness,  take  the  question  of  the  cleansing  blood, 
take  the  question  of  the  baptism  of  the  Spirit — what 
differences  are  caused  among  dear  believers  by  such 
questions!     That  there  should  be 

DIFFERENCES   OF   OPINION 

does  not  trouble  me.  We  have  not  all  got  the  same 
constitution  and  temperament  and  mind.  But  how 
often  hate,  bitterness,  contempt,  separation,  unlov- 
ingness,  are  caused  by  the  holiest  truths  of  God's 
Word!  Our  doctrines,  our  creeds,  have  been  more 
important  than  love.  We  often  think  we  are  valiant 
for  the  truth,  and  we  forget  God's  command  to  speak 
the  truth  m  love.  And  it  was  so  in  the  time  of  the 
Reformation  between  the  Lutheran  and  Calvinistic 
churches.     What  bitterness  there  was  then  in  regard 


32  ''THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  IS  LOVE'' 

to  the  Holy  Supper,  wliicli  was  meant  to  be  tlie  bond 
of  union  between  all  believers!  And  so,  down  the 
ages,  the  very  dearest  truths  of  God  have  become 
mountains  that  have  separated  us. 

If  we  want  to  pray  in  power,  and  if  we  want  to 
expect  the  Holy  Spirit  to  come  down  in  power,  and 
if  we  want  indeed  that  God  shall  pour  out  His  Spirit, 
we  must  enter  into  a  covenant  with  God  that  we  love 
one  another  with  a  heavenly  love. 

Are  you  ready  for  that?  Only  that  is  true  love 
that  is  large  enough  to  take  in  all  God's  children,  the 
most  unloving  and  unlovable,  and  unworthy,  and 
unbearable,  and  trying.  If  my  vow — absolute  sur- 
render to  God — was  true,  then  it  must  mean  absolute 
surrender  to  the  divine  love  to  fill  me;  to  be  a  servant 
of  love  to  love  every  child  of  God  around  me.  "  The 
fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love." 

Oh,  God  did  something  wonderful  when  He  gave 
Christ,  at  His  right  hand,  the  Holy  Spirit  to  come 
down  out  of  the  heart  of  the  Father  and  His  everlast- 
ing love.  And  how  we  have  degraded  the  Holy 
Spirit  into  a  mere  power  by  which  we  have  to  do 
our  work!  God  forgive  us.  Oh  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
might  be  held  in  honor  as  a  power  to  fill  us  with  the 
very  life  and  nature  of  God  and  of  Christ! 

VI. 

"The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  love."  I  ask  once 
again.  Why  is  it  so?  And  the  answer  comes:  That 
is  the  only  power  in  which  Christians  really  can  do 
their  work. 

Yes,  it  is  that  we  need.  We  want  not  only  love 
that  is  to  bind  us  to  each  other,  but  we  want  a  divine 


"  THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  IS  LOVE''  33 

love  in  our  work  for  the  lost  around  us.  Oh,  do  we 
not  often  undertake  a  great  deal  of  work  just  as  men 
undertake  work  of  philanthropy,  from  a  natural  spirit 
of  comjpassion  for  our  fellow^men?  Do  we  not  often 
undertake  Christian  work  because  our  minister  or 
friend  calls  to  it?  and  do  we  not  often  perform  Chris- 
tian work  with  a  certain  zeal  but  without  having  had 
a  baptism  of  love? 

People  often  ask:  "  What  is  the  baptism  of  fire?" 

I  have  answered  more  than  once:  I  know  no  fire 
like  the  fire  of  God,  the  fire  of  everlasting  love  that 
consumed  the  sacrifice  on  Calvary.  The  baptism  of 
love  is  what  the  Church  needs,  and  to  get  that  we 
must  begin  at  once  to  get  down  upon  our  faces  be- 
fore God  in  confession,  and  plead: 

"  Lord,  let  love  from  heaven  flow  down  into  my 
heart.  I  am  giving  up  my  life  to  pray  and  live  as 
one  who  has  given  himself  up  for  the  everlasting 
love  to  dwell  in  and  fill  him." 

Ah  yes,  if  the  love  of  God  were  in  our  hearts,  what 
a  difference  it  would  make!  There  are  hundreds  of 
believers  who  say: 

"  I  work  for  Christ,  and  I  feel  I  could  work  much 
more,  but  I  have  not  the  gift.  I  do  not  know  how  or 
where  to  begin.     I  do  not  know  what  I  can  do." 

Brother,  sister,  ask  God  to  baptize  you  with  the 
Spirit  of  love,  and  love  will  find  its  way.  Love  is  a 
fire  that  will  burn  through  every  difficulty.  You 
may  be  a  shy,  hesitating  man,  who  cannot  speak  well, 
but  love  can  burn  through  everything.  God  fill  us 
with  love!     We  need  it  for  our  work. 

You  have  read  many  a  touching  story  of  love  ex- 
pressed, and  you  have  said.  How  beautiful !     I  heard 


34  "  THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  IS  LOVE'' 

one  not  long  ago.  A  lady  had  been  asked  to  speak  at 
a.  Rescue  Home  where  there  were  a  number  of  poor 
women.  As  she  arrived  there  and  got  to  the  window 
with  the  matron,  she  saw  outside  a  wretched  object 
sitting,  and  asked: 

"Who  is  that?" 

The  matron  answered:  "  She  has  been  into  the 
house  thirty  or  forty  times,  and  she  has  always  gone 
away  again.  Nothing  can  be  done  with  her,  she  is  so 
low  and  hard." 

But  the  lady  said:  "  She  must  come  in." 

The  matron  then  said:  "  We  have  been  waiting  for 
you,  and  the  company  is  assembled,  and  you  have 
only  an  hour  for  the  address." 

The  lady  replied:  "  No,  this  is  of  more  importance  "; 
and  she  went  outside  where  the  woman  was  sitting, 
and  said: 

"My  sister,  what  is  the  matter?" 

"I  am  not  your  sister,"  was  the  reply. 

Then  the  lady  laid  her  hand  on  her,  and  said: 
"Yes,  I  am  your  sister,  and  I  love  you";  and  so  she 
spoke  until  the  heart  of  the  poor  woman  was  touched, 

The  conversation  lasted  some  time,  and  the  com- 
pany were  waiting  patiently.  Ultimately  the  lady 
brought  the  woman  into  the  room.  There  was  the 
poor  wretched,  degraded  creature,  full  of  shame.  She 
would  not  sit  on  a  chair,  but  sat  down  on  a  stool  be- 
side the  speaker's  seat,  and  she  let  her  lean  against 
her,  with  her  arms  around  the  poor  woman's  neck, 
while  she  spoke  to  the  assembled  people.  And  that 
love  touched  the  woman's  heart;  she  had  found  one 
who  really  loved  her,  and  that  love  gave  access  to  the 
love  of  Jesus. 


•'  THE  FRUIT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  IS  LOVE''  35 

Praise  God!  there  is  love  upon  earth  in  the  hearts 
of  God's  children;  but  oh,  that  there  were  more! 

0  God,  baptize  our  ministers  with  a  tender  love, 
and  our  missionaries,  and  our  colporters,  and  our 
Bible-readers,  and  our  workers,  and  our  young  men's 
and  young  women's  associations.  Oh  that  God 
would  begin  with  us  now,  and  baptize  us  with  heaven- 
ly love ! 

VII. 

Once  again.  It  is  only  love  that  can  fit  us  for  the 
work  of  intercession. 

1  have  said  that  love  must  fit  us  for  our  work.  Do 
you  know  what  the  hardest  and  the  most  important 
work  is  that  has  to  be  done  for  this  sinful  world?  It 
is  the  work  of  intercession,  the  work  of  going  to  God 
and  taking  time  to  lay  hold  on  Him. 

A  man  may  be  an  earnest  Christian,  an  earnest 
minister,  and  a  man  may  do  good,  but  alas!  how  often 
he  has  to  confess  that  he  knows  but  little  of  what  it 
is  to  tarry  with  God!  May  God  give  us  the  great 
gift  of  an  intercessory  spirit,  a  spirit  of  prayer  and 
supplication!  Let  me  ask  you  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
not  to  let  a  day  pass  without  praying  for  all  saints, 
and  for  all  God's  people. 

I  find  there  are  Christians  who  think  little  of  that. 
I  find  there  are  prayer^unions  where  they  pray  for  the 
members,  and  not  for  all  believers.  I  pray  you,  take 
time  to  pray  for  the  Church  of  Christ.  It  is  right  to 
pray  for  the  heathen,  as  I  have  already  said.  God 
help  us  to  pray  more  for  them.  It  is  rig\t  to  pray  for 
missionaries  and  for  evangelistic  work,  aid  for  the 
unconverted.     But  Paul  did  not  tell  peopl.    to   pray 


30  ''THE  FRUIT  OF  THE    SPIRIT  IS  LOVE'' 

for  the  heathen  or  the  unconverted.  Paul  told  them 
to  pray  for  believers.  Do  make  this  your  first  prayer 
every  day: 

"loed,  bless  thy  saints  everywheee." 

The  state  of  Christ's  Church  is  indescribably  low. 
Plead  for  God's  people  that  He  would  visit  them, 
plead  for  each  other,  plead  for  all  believers  who  are 
trying  to  work  for  God.  Let  love  fill  your  heart.  Ask 
Christ  to  pour  it  out  afresh  into  you  every  day.  Try 
to  get  it  into  you  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God:  I  am 
separated  unto  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  fruit  of  the 
Spirit  is  love.     God  heli^  us  to  understand  it. 

May  God  grant  that  we  learn  day  by  day  to  wait 
more  quietly  upon  Him,  Do  not  wait  upon  God  only 
for  ourselves,  or  the  power  to  do  so  will  soon  be  lost; 
but  give  ourselves  up  to  the  ministry  and  the  love  of 
intercession,  and  pray  more  for  God's  people,  for 
God's  people  round  about  us  for  the  Spirit  of  love  in 
ourselves  and  in  them,  and  for  the  work  of  God  we 
are  connected  with;  and  the  answer  will  surely  come, 
and  our  waiting  upon  God  will  be  a  source  of  untold 
blessing  and  power.  "  The  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is 
love." 

Have  you  a  lack  of  love  to  confess  before  God? 
Then  make  confession  and  say  before  Him;  "O  Lord, 
my  want  of  heart,  my  want  or  love — I  confess  it." 
And  then,  as  you  cast  that  want  at  His  feet,  believe 
that  the  blood  cleanses  you,  that  Jesus  comes  in  His 
mighty  cleansing,  saving  power  to  deliver  you,  and 
that  He  will  '^ive  His  Holy  Spirit. 


SEPARATED  UNTO  THE  HOLY  GHOST. 

"Now  there  were  in  the  church  that  was  at  Antioch 
certain  prophets  and  teachers;  as  Barnabas,  and  Sim- 
eon that  was  called  Niger,  and  Lucius  of  Cyrene,  and 
and  Manaen     .     .     .     and  Saul. 

"As  they  ministered  to  the  Lord  and  fasted,  the 
Holy  Ghost  said.  Separate  me  Barnabas  and  Saul  for 
the  work  whereunto  I  have  called  them. 

"  And  when  they  had  fasted  and  prayed,  and  laid 
their  hands  on  them,  they  sent  them  away.  So  they, 
being  sent  forth  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  departed  unto 
Seleucia." — Acts  xiii.  1-4. 

In  the  story  of  our  text  we  shall  find  some  precious 
thoughts  to  guide  us  as  to  what  God  would  have  of 
us,  and  what  God  would  do  for  us.  The  great  lesson 
of  the  verses  quoted  is  this:  TJie  Holy  Gliost  is 
the  director  of  the  loork  of  God  upon  the  earth.  And 
what  we  should  do  if  we  are  to  work  rightly  for  God, 
and  if  God  is  to  bless  our  work,  is  to  see  that  we 
stand  in  a  right  relation  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  that  we 
give  Him  every  day  the  place  of  honor  that  belongs 
to  Him,  and  that  in  all  our  work  and  (what  is  more) 
in  all  our  private  inner  life,  the  Holy  Ghost  shall  al- 
ways have  the  first  place.  Let  me  point  out  to  you 
some  of  the  precious  thoughts  our  passage  suggests. 

And,  first  of  all,  we  see  that  God  has  His  own 
plans  tvith  regard  to  His  hincjdom. 

His  church  at  Antioch  had  been  established.     God 

37 


38  SEPARATED  UNTO  THE  HOLY  GHOST 

had  certain  plans  and  intentions  with  regard  to  Asia, 
and  with  regard  to  Europe.  He  had  conceived  them ; 
they  were  His,  and  He  made  them  known  to  His  serv- 
ants. 

Our  great  Commander  organizes  every  campaign, 
and  His  generals  and  officers  do  not  always  know  the 
great  plans.  They  often  receive  sealed  orders,  and  they 
have  to  wait  on  Him  for  what  He  gives  them  as  orders. 
God  in  heaven  has  wishes,  and  a  will,  in  regard  to  any 
work  that  ought  to  be  done,  and  to  the  way  in  which 
it  has  to  be  done.  Blessed  is  the  man  who  gets  into 
God's  secrets  and  works  under  God. 

Some  years  ago,  at  Wellington,  South  Africa, 
where  I  live,  we  opened  a  Mission  Institute — what 
is  counted  there  a  fine  large  building.  At  our  open- 
ing services  the  Principal  said  something  that  I 
have  never  forgotten.     He  remarked: 

"  Last  year  we  gathered  here  to  lay  the  foundation^ 
stone,  and  what  was  there  then  to  be  seen?  Nothing 
but  rubbish,  and  stones,  and  bricks,  and  ruins  of  an 
old  building  that  had  been  pulled  dow^n.  There  we 
laid  the  foundation-stone,  and  very  few  knew  what 
the  building  was  that  was  to  rise.  No  one  knew  it 
perfectly  in  every  detail  except  one  man,  the  archi- 
tect. In  his  mind  it  was  all  clear,  and  as  the  con- 
tractor and  the  mason  and  the  carpenter  came  to 
their  work  they  took  their  orders  from  him,  and  the 
humblest  laborer  had  to  be  obedient  to  orders,  and 
the  structure  rose,  and  this  beautiful  building  has 
been  completed.  And  just  so,"  he  added,  "  this 
building  that  we  open  to-day  is  but  laying  the  foun- 
dation of  a  work  of  which  only  God  knows  what  is 
to  become." 


SEPARATED  UNTO  THE  HOLY  GHOST  39 

But  God  has  His  workers  and  His  plans  clearly 
mapped  out,  and  our  position  is  to  wait,  that  God 
should  communicate  to  us  as  much  of  His  will  as 
each  time  is  needful. 

We  have  simply  to  be  faithful  in  obedience,  car- 
rying out  His  orders.  God  has  a  plan  for  His  Church 
upon  earth.  But  alas!  we  too  often  make  our  plan, 
and  we  think  that  we  know  what  ought  to  be  done. 
We  ask  God  fii'st  to  bless  our  feeble  efforts,  instead 
of  absolutely  refusing  to  go  unless  God  go  before 
us.  God  has  planned  for  the  work  and  the  extension 
of  His  kingdom.  The  Holy  Ghost  has  had  that  work 
given  in  charge  to  Him.  "  The  work  whereunto  I 
have  called  them."  May  God  therefore  help  us  all 
to  be  afraid  of  touching  "  the  ark  of  God  "  except 
as  we  are  led  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

Then  the  second  thought: — God  is  imlling  and 
able  to  reveal  to  His  servants  what  His  will  is. 

Yes,  blessed  be  God,  communications  come  down 
from  heaven  still!  As  we  read  here  what  the  Holy 
Ghost  said,  so  still  the  Holy  Ghost  will  speak  to 
His  Church  and  His  people.  In  these  later  days  He 
has  often  done  it.  He  has  come  to  individual  men, 
and  by  His  divine  teaching  He  has  led  them  out 
into  fields  of  labor  that  others  could  not  at  first  un- 
derstand or  approve;  into  ways  and  methods  that 
did  not  recommend  themselves  to  the  majority.  But 
the  Holy  Ghost  does  still  in  our  time  teach  His  peo- 
ple. Thank  God,  in  our  foreign  missionary  societies 
and  in  our  home  missions,  and  in  a  thousand  forms 
of  work,  the  guiding  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is  known, 
but  (we  are  all  ready,  I  think,  to  confess)  too  little 
known.     We  have  not  learned  enough  to  wait  upon 


40  SEr ABATED  UNTO  THE  HOLY  GHOST 

Him,  and  so  we  should  make  a  solemn  declaration 
before  God:  O  God,  we  want  to  wait  more  for  Thee 
to  show  us  Thy  will. 

Do  not  ask  God  only  for  power.  Many  a  Chris- 
tian has  his  own  plan  of  working,  but  God  must 
send  the  power.  The  man  works  in  his  own  will, 
and  God  must  give  the  grace — the  one  reason  why 
God  often  gives  so  little  grace  and  so  little  success. 
But  let  us  all  take  our  place  before  God  and  say: 

"  What  is  done  in  the  will  of  God  the  strength  of 
God  will  not  be  withheld  from  it;  what  is  done  in 
the  will  of  God  must  have  the  mighty  bfessing  of 
God." 

And  so  let  our  first  desire  be  to  have  the  will  of  God 
revealed. 

If  you  ask  me,  is  it  an  easy  thing  to  get  these 
communications  from  heaven,  and  to  understand 
them?  I  can  give  you  the  ansvrer.  It  is  easy  to 
those  who  are  in  right  fellowship  with  heaven,  and 
who  understand 

THE   ART   OF    WAITING    UPON   GOD. 

How  often  we  ask:  How  can  a  person  know  the 
will  of  God?  And  people  want,  when  they  are  in 
perplexity,  to  pray  very  earnestly  that  God  should 
answer  them  at  once.  But  God  can  only  reveal  His 
will  to  a  heart  that  is  humble  and  tender  and  empty. 
God  can  only  reveal  His  will  in  perplexities  and 
special  difficulties  to  a  heart  that  has  learned  to  obey 
and  honor  Him  loyally  in  little  things  and  in  daily 
life. 

That  brings  me  to  the  ihird  thought: — Noie  the 
disposition  to  ivhich  the  Spirit  revecds  God^s  will. 

What  do  we  read  here?     There  were  a  number  of 


SEPARATED  UNTO  THE  HOLY  GHOST  41 

men  ministering  to  the  Lord  and  fasting,  and  the 
Holy  Ghost  came  and  spoke  to  them.  Some  people 
understand  this  passage  very  much  as  they  would  in 
reference  to  a  missionary  committee  of  our  day.  We 
see  there  is  an  open  field,  and  we  have  had  our  mis- 
sions in  other  fields,  and  we  are  going  to  get  on  to 
that  field.  We  have  virtually  settled  that,  and  we 
pray  about  it.  But  the  position  was  a  very  different 
one  in  those  former  days.  I  doubt  whether  any  of 
them  thought  of  Europe,  for  later  on  even  Paul 
himself  assayed  to  go  back  into  Asia,  till  the  night 
vision  called  him  by  the  will  of  God.  Look  at  those 
men.  God  had  done  wonders.  He  had  extended  the 
Church  to  Antioch,  and  He  had  given  rich  and  large 
blessing.  Now,  here  were  these  men  ministering  to  the 
Lord,  serving  Him  with  prayer  and  fasting.  What 
a  deep  conviction  they  have — "  It  must  all  come  di- 
rect from  heaven.  We  are  in  fellowship  with  the 
risen  Lord;  we  must  have  a  close  union  with  Him, 
and  somehow  He  will  let  us  know  what  He  wants." 
And  there  they  were,  empty,  ignorant,  helpless,  glad 
and  j'oyful,  but  deeply  humbled. 

*'  O  Lord,"  they  seem  to  say,  "  we  are  Thy  servants, 
and  in  fasting  and  prayer  we  wait  upon  Thee.  What 
isThy  willfor  us?" 

Was  it  not  the  same  with  Peter?  He  was  on  the 
housetop,  fasting  aud  jDraying,  and  little  did  he  think 
of  the  vision  and  the  command  to  go  to  Csesarea. 
He  was  ignorant  of  what  his  work  might  be. 

It  is  in  hearts  entirely  surrendered  to  the  Lord 
Jesus,  in  hearts  separating  themselves  from  the  world, 
and  even  from  ordinary  religious  exercises,  and  giv- 
ing themselves  up  in  intense  prayer  to  look  to  their 


42  SEPARATED  UNTO  THE  HOLY  GHOST 

Lord — it  is  in  such  hearts  that  the  heavenly  will 
of  God  will  be  made  manifest. 

You  know  that  word  "  fasting "  occurs  a  second 
time  (in  the  third  verse):  "  They  fasted  and  prayed." 
When  you  pray,  you  love  to  go  into  your  closet,  ac- 
cording to  the  command  of  Jesus,  and  shut  the  door. 
You  shut  out  business  and  company  and  pleasure  and 
anything  that  can  distract,  and  you  want  to  be  alone 
with  God.  But  in  one  shape  even  the  material  world 
follows  you  there.  You  must  eat.  These  men  wanted 
to  shut  themselves  out  from  the  influences  of  the  ma- 
terial and  the  visible,  and  they  fasted.  What  they 
ate  was  simply  enough  to  supply  the  wants  of  nature, 
and  in  the  intensity  of  their  souls  they  thought  to 
give  expression  to  their  letting-go  of  everything  on 
earth,  in  their  fasting  before  God.  Oh,  may  God 
give  us  that  intensity  of  desire,  that  separation  from 
everything,  because  we  want  to  wait  upon  God,  that 
the  Holy  Ghost  may  reveal  to  us  God's  blessed  will. 

The  fourth  thought.  What  is  now  the  will  of  God 
as  the  Holy  Ghost  reveals  it?  It  is  contained  in  one 
word:  Separaiio7i  unto  the  Holy  Ghost.     That  is 

THE  KEYNOTE  OF  THE  MESSAGE  FEOM  HEAVEN. 

"  Separate  me  Barnabas  and  Saul  for  the  work 
whereunto  I  have  called  them.  The  work  is  mine, 
and  I  care  for  it,  and  I  have  chosen  these  men  and 
called  them,  and  I  want  you  who  represent  the 
Church  of  Christ  ujDon  earth,  to  set  them  apart  unto 
me." 

Look  at  this  heavenly  message  in  its  twofold  as- 
pect. The  men  were  to  be  set  apart  to  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  the  Church  was  to  do  this  separating 


SEPARATED  UNTO  THE  HOLY  GHOST  43 

loork.  The  Holy  Ghost  could  trust  these  men  to  do 
it  in  a  right  spirit.  There  they  were  abiding  in  fel- 
lowship with  the  heavenly,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  could 
say  to  them,  Do  the  work  of  separating  these  men. 
And  these  were  the  men  the  Holy  Ghost  had  pre- 
pared, and  He  could  say  of  them,  Let  them  be  sepa- 
rated unto  me. 

Here  we  come  to  the  very  root,  to  the  very  life  of 
the  need  of  Christian  workers.  The  question  is: 
What  is  needed  that  the  power  of  God  should  rest 
upon  us  more  mightily,  that  the  blessing  of  God 
should  be  poured  out  more  abundantly  among  those 
poor  wretched  people  and  perishing  sinners  among 
whom  we  labor?     And  the  answer  from  heaven  is: 

"  I  want  men  separated  unto  the  Holy  Ghost." 

What  does  that  imply  ?  You  know  that  there  are 
two  spirits  on  earth.  Christ  said,  when  He  spoke 
about  the  Holy  Spirit:  "The  world  cannot  receive 
Him."  Paul  said:  "  We  have  received  not  the  spirit 
of  the  world,  but  the  Spirit  that  is  of  God."  That  is 
the  great  want  in  every  worker — the  spirit  of  the 
world  going  out,  and  the  Spirit  of  God  coming  in  to 
take  possession  of  the  inner  life,  and  of  the  whole 
being. 

I  am  sure  there  are  workers  who  often  cry  to  God 
for  the  Holy  Spirit  to  come  upon  them  as  a  Spirit  of 
power  for  their  work,  and  when  they  feel  that  meas- 
ure of  power,  and  get  blessing,  they  thank  God  for  it. 
But  God  wants  something  more  and  something 
higher.  God  wants  us  to  seek  for  the  Holy  Spirit  as 
a  Spirit  of  power  in  our  own  heart  and  life,  to  con- 
quer self  and  cast  out  sin,  and  work  the  blessed  and 
beautiful  image  of  Jesus  into  us. 


41  SEPARATED  UNTO  THE  HOLY  GHOST 

There  is  a  difference  between  the  power  of  the 
Spirit  as  a  gift,  and  the  power  of  the  Spirit  for  the 
grace  of  a  holy  life.  A  man  may  often  have  a  meas- 
ure of  the  power  of  the  Spirit,  but  if  there  be  not  a 
large  measure  of  the  Spirit  as  the  Spirit  of  grace  and 
holiness,  the  defect  will  be  manifest  in  his  work.  He 
may  be  made  the  means  of  conversion,  but  he  never 
will  help  people  on  to  a  higher  standard  of  spiritual 
life,  and  when  he  passes  away  a  great  deal  of  his 
work  may  pass  away  too.  But  a  man  who  is  sepa- 
rated unto  the  Holy  Ghost  is  a  man  who  is  given  up 
to  say: 

"  Father,  let  the  Holy  Ghost  have  full  domin- 
ion^  over  me,  in  my  home,  in  my  temper,  in  every 
word  of  my  tongue,  in  every  thought  of  my  heart,  in 
every  feeling  towards  my  fellow  men;  let  the  Holy 
Spirit  have  entire  possession." 

Is  that  what  has  been  the  longing  and  the  cove- 
nant of  your  heart  with  your  God — to  be  a  man  or  a 
woman  separated  and  given  up  unto  the  Holy  Ghost? 
I  pray  you  listen  to  the  voice  of  heaven.  "  Separate 
me,"  said  the  Holy  Ghost.  Yes,  separated  unto  the 
Holy  Ghost.  May  God  grant  that  the  Word  may 
enter  into  the  very  depths  of  our  being  to  search  us, 
and  if  we  discover  that  we  have  not  come  out  from 
the  world  entirely,  if  God  discovers  to  us  that  the 
selfdife,  self-will,  self^exaltation  are  there,  let  us 
humble  ourselves  before  Him. 

Man,  woman,  brother,  sister,  you  are  a  worker  sep- 
arated unto  the  Holy  Ghost.  Is  that  true?  Has 
that  been  your  longing  desire?  Has  that  been  your 
surrender?  Has  that  been  what  you  have  expected 
through  faith  in  the  power  of  our  risen  and  almighty 


SEPARATED  UNTO  THE  HOLY  GHOST  45 

Lord  Jesus?  If  not,  here  is  the  call  of  faith,  and 
here  is  the  key  of  blessing — separated  unto  the  Holy 
Ghost.     God  write  the  word  in  our  hearts! 

I  said  the  Holy  Spirit  spoke  to  that  church  as  a 
church  capable  of  doing  that  work.  The  Holy  Spirit 
trusted  them.  God  grant  that  our  churches,  our 
missionary  societies,  and  our  workers'  unions,  that  all 
our  directors  and  councils  and  committees  may  be 
men  and  women  who  are  fit  for  the  icork  of  separat- 
ing ivorkers  unto  the  Holy  Spirit.  We  can  ask  God 
for  that  too. 

Then  comes  my  fifth  thought,  and  it  is  this; — 
This  holy  partnership  ivith  the  Holy  Spirit  in  His 
work  becomes  a  ^natter  of  consciousness  and  of 
action. 

These  men,  what  did  they  do?  They  set  apart  Paul 
and  Barnabas,  and  then  it  is  written  of  the  two  that 
they,  being  sent  forth  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  went  down 
to  Seleucia.  Oh,  what  fellowship!  The  Holy  Spirit 
in  heaven  doing  part  of  the  work,  man  on  earth 
doing  the  other  part.  After  the  ordination  of  the 
men  upon  earth,  it  is  written  in  God's  inspired  Word 
that  they  were  sent  forth  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

And  see  how  this  partnership  calls  to  new  prayer 
and  fasting.  They  had  for  a  certain  time  been  min- 
istering to  the  Lord  and  fasting,  perhaps  days;  and 
the  Holy  Spirit  speaks,  and  they  have  to  do  the  work 
and  to  enter  into  partnership,  and  at  once  they  come 
together  for  more  prayer  and  fasting.  That  is  the 
spirit  in  which  they  obey  the  command  of  their 
Lord.  And  that  teaches  us  that  it  is  not  only  in  the 
beginning  of  our  Christian  work,  but  all  along,  that 
we  need  to  have  our  strength  in  prayer.    If  there  is 


46  SEPARATED  UNTO  THE  HOLY  GHOST 

one  thought  with  regard  to  the  Church  of  Christ, 
which  at  times  comes  to  me  with  overwhelming  sor- 
row; if  there  is  one  thought,  in  regard  to  my  own 
life,  of  which  I  am  ashamed;  if  there  is  one  thought 
of  which  I  feel  that  the  Church  of  Christ  has  not 
accepted  it  and  not  grasped  it;  if  there  is  one  thought 
which  makes  me  pray  to  God:  "  Oh,  teach  us  by  Thy 
grace,  new  things  " — it  is  the 

WONDERFUL  POWER  THAT  PRAYER  IS  MEANT  TO  HAVE 

in  the  kingdom.  We  have  so  little  availed  ourselves 
of  it. 

We  have  all  read  the  expression  of  Christian  in 
Bunyan's  great  work,  when  he  found  he  had  the  key 
in  his  breast  that  should  unlock  the  dungeon.  We 
have  the  key  that  can  unlock  the  dungeon  of  atheism 
and  of  heathendom.  But,  oh!  we  are  far  more  oc- 
cupied with  our  work  than  we  are  with  prayer.  We 
believe  more  in  speaking  to  men  than  we  believe  in 
speaking  to  God.  Learn  from  these  men  that  the 
work  which  the  Holy  Ghost  commands  must  call  us 
to  new  fasting  and  prayer,  to  new  separation  from 
the  spirit  and  the  pleasures  of  the  world,  to  new  con- 
secration to  God  and  to  His  fellowship.  Those  men 
gave  themselves  up  to  fasting  and  prayer,  and  if 
in  all  our  ordinary  Christian  work  there  were  more 
prayer  there  would  be  more  blessing  in  our  own 
inner  life.  If  we  felt  and  proved  and  testified  to  the 
world  that  our  only  strength  lay  in  keeping  every 
minute  in  contact  with  Christ,  every  minute  allowing 
God  to  work  in  us — if  that  were  our  spirit,  would 
not,  by  the  grace  of  God,  our  lives  be  holier?  Would 
not   they  be  more  abundantly  fruitful? 


StlP ABATED  UNTO  THE  HOLY  GHOST  il 

I  hardly  know  a  more  solemn  warning  in  God's 
Word  than  that  which  we  find  in  the  third  chapter  of 
Galatians,  where  Paul  asked: 

"  Having  begun  in  the  Spirit,  are  ye  now  made 
perfect  by  the  flesh?  " 

Do  you  understand  what  that  means?  A  terrible 
danger  in  Christian  work,  just  as  in  a  Christian  life 
that  is  begun  with  much  prayer,  begun  in  the  Holy 
Spirit,  is  that  it  may  be  gradually  shunted  off  on  to 
the  lines  of  the  flesh;  and  the  word  comes:  "  Having 
begun  in  the  Spirit,  are  ye  now  made  perfect  by  the 
flesh?"  In  the  time  of  our  first  perplexity  and 
helplessness  we  prayed  much  to  God,  and  God  an- 
swered and  God  blessed,  and  our  organization  became 
perfected,  and  our  band  of  workers  became  large; 
but  gradually  the  organization  and  the  work  and  the 
rush  have  so  got  possesion  of  us  that  the  power  of 
the  Spirit,  in  which  we  began  when  we  were  a  small 
company,  has  almost  been  lost.  Oh,  I  pray  you,  note 
it  well!  It  was  with  new  prayer  and  fasting,  with 
more  prayer  and  fasting,  that  this  company  of  dis- 
ciples carried  out  the  command  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
"  My  soul,  wait  thou  only  upon  God."  That  is  our 
highest  and  most  important  work.  The  Holy  Spirit 
comes  in  answer  to  believing  prayer. 

You  know  when  the  exalted  Jesus  had  ascended  to 
the  throne,  for  ten  days  the  footstool  of  the  throne 
was  the  place  where  His  waiting  disciples  cried  to 
Him.  And  that  is  the  law  of  the  kingdom — the 
King  upon  the  throne,  the  servants  upon  the  foot- 
stool.    May  God  find  us  there  unceasingly! 

Then  comes  the  last  thought:— TF/ia^  a  wonderful 
blessing  comes  when  the  Holy  Ghost  is  allowed  to 


48  SEPARATED  UNTO  THE  HOLY  GHOST 

lead  and  to  direct  the  work,  and  when  it  is  carried 
on  in  obedience  to  Him! 

You  know  the  story  of  the  mission  on  which 
Barnabas  and  Saul  were  sent  out.  You  know  what 
power  there  was  with  them.  The  Holy  Ghost  sent 
them,  and  they  went  on  from  place  to  place  with  large 
blessing.  The  Holy  Ghost  was  their  leader  further 
on.  You  recollect  how  it  was  by  the  Spirit  that  Paul 
was  hindered  from  going  again  into  Asia,  and  was 
led  away  over  to  Europe.  Oh,  the  blessing  that  rest- 
ed upon  that  little  company  of  men,  and  upon  their 
ministry  unto  the  Lord! 

I  pray  you,  let  us  learn  to  believe  that  God  has  a 
blessing  for  us.  The  Holy  Ghost,  into  whose  hands 
God  has  put  the  work,  has  been  called  "  the  executive 
of  the  Holy  Trinity."  The  Holy  Ghost  has  not  only 
power,  but  He  has  the  Spirit  of  love.  He  is  brood- 
ing over  this  dark  world,  and  every  sphere  of  work 
in  it,  and  He  is  willing  to  bless.  And  why  is  there 
not  more  blessing?  There  can  be  but  one  answer. 
We  have  not  honored  the  Holy  Ghost  as  we  should 
have  done.  Is  there  one  who  can  say  that  that  is 
not  true?  Is  not  every  thoughtful  heart  ready  to 
cry:  "God  forgive  me  that  I  have  not  honored  the 
Holy  Spirit  as  I  should  have  done,  that  I  have  grieved 
Him,  that  I  have  allowed  self  and  the  flesh  and  my 
own  will  to  work  where  the  Holy  Ghost  should  have 
been  honored!  May  God  forgive  me  that  I  have  al- 
lowed self  and  the  flesh  and  the  will  actually  to  have 
the   place  that  God  wanted  the  Holy  Ghost  to  get." 

Oh,  the  sin  is  greater  than  we  know!  No  wonder 
that  there  is  so  much  feebleness  and  failure  in  the 
Church  of  Christ! 


PETER'S  REPENTANCE. 

"And  the  Lord  turned  and  looked  upon  Peter. 
And  Peter  remembered  the  word  of  the  Lord,  how 
He  had  said  unto  him,  Before  the  cock  crow,  thou 
shalt  deny  me  thrice.  And  Peter  went  out,  and  wept 
bitterly."— jLtt/ce  22 :  61,  62. 

That  was  the  turning-point  in  the  history  of  Peter. 
Christ  had  said  to  him:  "Thou  canst  not  follow  me 
now."  Peter  was  not  in  a  fit  state  to  follow  Christ, 
because  he  had  not  been  brought  to  an  end  of  him- 
self; he  did  not  know  himself,  and  he  therefore  could 
not  follow  Christ.  But  when  he  went  out  and  wept 
bitterly,  then  came  the  great  change.  Christ  pre- 
viously said  to  him:  "When  thou  art  converted, 
strengthen  thy  brethren."  Here  is  the  point  where 
Peter  was  converted  from  self  to  Christ. 

I  thank  God  for  the  story  of  Peter.  I  do  not  know 
a  man  in  the  Bible  who  gives  us  greater  comfort. 
When  we  look  at  his  character,  so  full  of  failures,  and 
at  what  Christ  made  him  by  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  there  is  hope  for  every  one  of  us.  But  re- 
member, before  Christ  could  fill  Peter  with  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  make  a  new  man  of  him,  he  had  to  go  out 
and  weep  bitterly;  he  had  to  be  humbled.  If  we 
want  to  understand  this,  I  think  there  are  four  points 
that  we  must  look  at.  First,  let  us  look  at  Peter  the 
devoted  disciple  of  Jesus;  next,  at  Peter  as  he  lived 
the  life  of  self ;  then  at  Peter  in  his  repentance;  and, 

49 


50  PETER'S  REPENTANCE 

lastly,  at  ivhat  Christ  made  of  Peier  hy  the  Holy 
Spirit. 

1.     First,  then,  look  at 

PETER   THE   DEVOTED   DISCIPLE  OF   CHRIST. 

Christ  called  Peter  to  forsake  his  nets  and  follow 
Him.  Peter  did  it  at  once,  and  he  afterwards  could 
say  rightly  to  the  Lord: 

"  We  have  forsaken  all  and  followed  Thee." 
Peter  was  a  man  of  absolute  surrender;  he  gave  up 
all  to  follow  Jesus.  Peter  was  also  a  man  of  ready 
obedience.  You  remember  Christ  said  to  him: 
"  Launch  out  into  the  deep,  and  let  down  the  net." 
Peter  the  fisherman  knew  there  were  no  fish  there, 
for  they  had  been  toiling  all  night  and  had  caught 
nothing;  but  he  said:  "  At  Thy  word  I  will  let  down 
the  net."  He  submitted  to  the  w^ord  of  Jesus.  Fur- 
ther, he  was  a  man  of  great  faith  When  he  saw 
Christ  walking  on  the  sea,  he  said:  "  Lord,  if  it  be 
Thou,  bid  me  come  unto  Thee  ";  and  at  the  voice  of 
Christ  he  stepped  out  of  the  boat  and  walked  upon 
the  water.  And  Peter  was  a  man  of  spiritual  insight. 
When  Christ  asked  the  disciples:  "Whom  do  ye  say 
that  I  am?"  Peter  was  able  to  answer:  ''Thou  art 
the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God."  And  Christ 
said:  "Blessed  art  thou,  Simon  Barjona;  for  flesh 
and  blood  hath  not  revealed  it  unto  thee,  but  my 
Father  which  is  in  heaven."  And  Christ  spoke  of 
him  as  the  i^ock  man,  and  of  his  having  the  keys  of 
the  kingdom.  Peter  was  a  splendid  man,  a  devoted 
disciple  of  Jesus,  and  if  he  was  living  nowadays, 
everybody  would  say  that  he  was  an  advanced  Chris- 
tian. And  yet  how  much  there  was  wanting  in 
Peter  I 


PETERS  REPENTANCE  51 

2.     Look  next  at 

PETER   LIVING   THE   LIFE  OF   SELF, 

pleasing  self,  and  trusting  self,  and  seeking  the  honor 
of  self. 

You  recollect  that  just  after  Christ  had  said  to 
him:  "Flesh  and  blood  hath  not  revealed  it  unto 
thee,  but  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven,"  Christ  be- 
gan to  speak  about  His  sufferings,  and  Peter  dared  to 
say:  "Be  it  far  from  Thee,  Lord;  this  shall  not  be 
unto  Thee."     Then  Christ  had  to  say: 

"Get  thee  behind  me,  Satan;  for  thou  savorest 
not  the  things  that  be  of  God,  but  those  that  be  of 
men." 

There  was  Peter  in  his  self-will,  trusting  his  own 
wisdom,  and  actually  forbidding  Christ  to  go  and  die. 
Whence  did  that  come?  Peter  trusted  in  himself 
and  his  own  thoughts  about  divine  things.  We  see 
later  on,  more  than  once,  that  among  the  disciples 
there  was  a  questioning  who  should  be  the  greatest, 
and  Peter  was  one  of  them,  and  he  thought  he  had  a 
right  to  the  very  first  place.  He  sought  his  own 
honor  even  above  the  others.  It  was  the  life  of  self 
strong  in  Peter.  He  had  left  his  boats  and  his  nets, 
but  not  his  old  self. 

When  Christ  had  spoken  to  him  about  His  suffer- 
ings, and  said:  "  Get  thee  behind  me,  Satan,"  He  fol- 
lowed it  up  by  saying:  "  If  any  man  will  come  after 
me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross,  and 
follow  me."  No  man  can  follow  Him  unless  he  do 
that.  Self  must  be  utterly  denied.  What  does  that 
mean?  When  Peter  denied  Christ,  we  read  that  he 
three  times  said:  "  I  do  not  know  the  man  ";  in  other 


52  PETER'S  REPENTANCE 

words:  "I  have  nothing  to  do  with  Him;  He  and  I 
are  no  friends;  I  deny  having  any  connection  with 
Him."  Christ  told  Peter  that  he  must  deny  self. 
Self  must  be  ignored,  and  its  every  claim  rejected. 
That  is 

THE  EOOT  OF  TRUE  DISCIPLESHIP; 

but  Peter  did  not  understand  it,  and  could  not  obey 
it.  And  what  happened?  When  the  last  night  came, 
Christ  said  to  him: 

"  Before  the  cock  crow  twice  thou  shalt  deny  me 
thrice." 

But  with  what  self-confidence  Peter  said:  "  Though 
all  should  forsake  Thee,  yet  will  not  I.  I  am  ready 
to  go  with  Thee,  to  prison  and  to  death." 

Peter  meant  it  honestly,  and  Peter  really  intended 
to  do  it;  but  Peter  did  not  know  himself.  He  did 
not  believe  he  was  so  bad  as  Jesus  said  he  was. 

We  perhaps  think  of  individual  sins  that  come  be- 
tween us  and  God,  but  what  are  we  to  do  with  that  self- 
life  which  is  all  unclean,  our  very  nature  ?  What  are  we 
to  do  with  that  flesh  that  is  entirely  under  the  power 
of  sin?  Deliverance  from  that  is  what  we  need. 
Peter  knew  it  not,  and  therefore  it  was  that  in  his 
self-confidence  he  went  forth,  and  denied  his  Lord. 

Notice  how  Christ  uses  that  word  deny  twice.  He 
said  to  Peter  the  first  time.  Deny  self;  He  said  to 
Peter  the  second  time.  Thou  wilt  deny  me.  It  is 
either  of  the  two.  There  is  no  choice  for  us;  we 
must  either  deny  self  or  deny  Christ.  There  are  two 
great  powers  fighting  each  other — the  self-nature  in 
the  power  of  sin,  and  Christ  in  the  power  of  God. 
Either  of  these  must  rule  within  us. 


PETER'S  REPENTANCE  53 

It  was  self  that  made  the  devil.  He  was  an  angel 
of  God,  but  he  wanted  to  exalt  self.  He  became  a 
devil  in  hell.  Self  was  the  cause  of  the  fall  of  man. 
Eve  ^wanted  something  for  herself,  and  so  our  first 
parents  fell  into  all  the  wretchedness  of  sin.  We 
their  children  have  inherited  an  awful  nature  of  sin. 

3.     Look  LOW  at 

PETER'S   REPENTANCE. 

Peter  denied  his  Lord  thrice,  and  then  the  Lord 
looked  upon  him;  and  that  look  of  Jesus  broke  the 
heart  of  Peter,  and  all  at  once  there  opened  up  before 
him  the  terrible  sin  that  he  had  committed,  the  terri- 
ble failure  that  had  come,  and  the  dei)th  into  which 
he  had  fallen,  and  "Peter  went  out  and  wept  bitterly." 

Oh!  who  can  tell  what  that  repentance  must  have 
been?  During  the  following  hours  of  that  night,  and 
the  next  day,  when  he  saw  Christ  crucified  and  buried, 
and  the  next  day,  the  Sabbath — oh,  in  what  hopeless 
despair  and  shame  he  must  have  spent  that  day ! 

"My  Lord  is  gone,  my  hope  is  gone,  and  I  denied 
my  Lord.  After  that  life  of  love,  after  that  blessed 
fellowship  of  three  years,  I  denied  my  Lord.  God 
have  mercy  upon  me!  " 

I  do  not  think  we  can  realize  into  what  a  depth  of 
humiliation  Peter  sank  then.  But  that  was  the 
turning-point  and  the  change;  and  on  the  first  day 
of  the  week  Christ  was  seen  of  Peter,  and  in  the 
evening  He  met  him  with  the  others.  Later  on  at 
the  Lake  of  Galilee  He  asked  him:  "  Lovest  thou 
me?  "  until  Peter  was  made  sad  by  the  thought  that 
the  Lord  reminded  him  of  having  denied  Him  thrice; 
and  said  in  sorrow,  but  in  uprightness: 


54  PETER'S  REPENTANCE 

"Lord,  Thou  knowest  all  things;  Thou  knowest 
that  I  love  Thee." 

4.     And  then  Peter  was  prepared  for 

THE   DELIVERANCE   FROM    SELF;  ♦ 

and  that  is  my  last  thought.  You  know  Christ  took 
him  with  others  to  the  footstool  of  the  throne, 
and  bade  them  wait  there;  and  then  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost  the  Holy  Spirit  came,  and  Peter  was  a 
changed  man.  I  do  not  want  you  only  to  think  of 
the  change  in  Peter,  in  that  boldness,  and  that  pow- 
er, and  that  insight  into  the  Scriptures,  and  that 
blessing  with  which  he  preached  that  day.  Thank 
God  for  that.  But  there  was  something  for 
Peter  deeper  and  better.  Peter's  whole  nature 
was  changed.  The  work  that  Christ  began  in 
Peter  when  He  looked  upon  him,  was  perfected 
when  he  was  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost. 

If  you  want  to  see  that,  read  the  First  Epistle  of 
Peter.  You  know  wherein  Peter's  failings  lay. 
When  he  said  to  Christ,  in  effect:  "  Thou  never  canst 
suffer;  it  cannot  be  " — it  showed  he  had  not  a  con- 
ception of  what  it  was  to  pass  through  death  into 
life.  Christ  said:  "Deny  thyself,''''  and  in  spite  of 
that  he  denied  his  Lord.  When  Christ  warned  him: 
"  Thou  shalt  deny  me,"  and  he  insisted  that  he  never 
would,  Peter  showed  how  little  he  understood  what 
there  was  in  himself.  But  when  I  read  his  epistle 
and  hear  him  say:  "  If  ye  be  reproached  for  the  name 
of  Christ,  happy  are  ye,  for  the  Spirit  of  God  and  of 
glory  resteth  upon  you,"  then  I  say  that  is  not  the 
old  Peter,  but  that  is  the  very  Spirit  of  Christ 
breathing  and  speaking  within  him. 


PETERS  REPENTANCE  55 

I  read  again  how  he  says:  "  Hereunto  ye  are  called, 
to  suffer,  even  as  Christ  suffered."  I  understand  what 
a  change  had  come  over  Peter.  Instead  of  denying 
Christ,  he  found  joy  and  pleasure  in  having  self 
denied  and  crucified  and  given  up  to  the  death. 
And  therefore  it  is  in  the  Acts  we  read  that,  when  he 
was  called  before  the  Council,  he  could  boldly  say: 
"  We  must  obey  God  rather  than  men,"  and  that  he 
could  return  with  the  other  disciples  and  rejoice  that 
they  were  counted  worthy  to  suffer  for  Christ's 
name. 

You  remember  his  self-exaltation;  but  now  he 
has  found  out  that  "  the  ornament  of  a  meek  and  quiet 
spirit  is  in  the  sight  of  God  of  great  price."  Again 
he  tells  us  to  be  "subject  one  to  another,  and  be 
clothed  with  humility." 

Dear  friend,  I  beseech  you,  look  at  Peter  utterly 
changed — the  self  pleasing,  the  self  trusting,  the 
self-seeking  Peter,  full  of  sin,  continually  get- 
ting into  trouble,  foolish  and  im]3etuous,  but  now 
filled  with  the  Spirit  and  the  life  of  Jesus.  Christ 
had  done  it  for  him  by  the  Holy  Ghost. 

And  now,  what  is  my  object  in  having  thus  very 
briefly  pointed  to  the  story  of  Peter?  That  story 
must  be  the  history  of  every  believer  who  is  really 
to  be  made  a  blessing  by  God.  That  story  is  a 
prophecy  of  what  every  one  can  receive  from  God  in 
heaven. 

Now  let  us  just  glance  hurriedly  at  what  these 
lessons  teach  us. 

The^?-s/  lesson  is  this:  You  may  be  a  very  ear- 
nest, godly,  devoted  believer,  in  whom  the  power  of 
the  flesh  is  yet  very  strong. 


5G  PETER'S  REPENTANCE 

That  is  a  very  solemn  truth.  Peter,  before  he  de- 
nied Christ,  had  cast  out  devils  and  had  healed  the 
sick;  and  yet  the  flesh  had  power,  and  the  flesh  had 
room  in  him.  Oh,  beloved,  we  want  to  realize  that 
it  is  just  on  account  of  there  being  so  much  of  that 
self-life  in  us  that  the  power  of  God  cannot  work  in 
us  as  mightily  as  God  is  willing  that  it  should  work. 
Do  you  realize  that  the  great  God  is  longing  to 
double  His  blessing,  to  give  tenfold  blessing  through 
us?  But  there  is  something  hindering  Him,  and 
that  something  is  a  proof  of  nothing  but  the  self- life. 
We  talk  about  the  pride  of  Peter,  and  the  impetuos- 
ity of  Peter,  and  the  self-confidence  of  Peter.  It 
all  rooted  in  that  one  word,  self.  Christ  had  said, 
"  Deny  self,"  and  Peter  had  never  understood,  and 
never  obeyed;  and  every  failing  came  out  of  that. 

What  a  solemn  thought,  and  wdiat  an  urgent  plea 
for  us  to  cry:  O  God,  do  discover  this  to  us,  that  none 
of  us  may  be  living  the  self4ife!  It  has  happened  to 
many  a  one  who  had  been  a  Christian  for  years,  who 
had  perhaps  occupied  a  x^rominent  position,  that  God 
found  him  out,  and  taught  him  to  find  himself  out, 
and  he  became  utterly  ashamed,  and  fell  down  broken 
before  God.  Oh,  the  bitter  shame  and  sorrow  and 
pain  and  agony  that  came  to  him,  until  at  last  he 
found  that  there  was  deliverance!  Peter  went  out 
and  wept  bitterly,  and  there  may  be  many  a  godly 
one  in  whom  the  power  of  the  flesh  rules  still. 

And  then  my  second  lesson  is: — It  is  the  work  of 
our  blessed  Lord  Jesus  to  discover  the  power  of  self. 

How  was  it  that  Peter,  the  carnal  Peter,  self-willed 
Peter,  Peter  with  the  strong  selfdove,  ever  became  a 
man  of  Pentecost  and  the  writer  of  his  Epistle?    It 


PETER'S  REPENTANCE  57 

was  because  Christ  had  him  in  charge,  and  Christ 
watched  over  him,  and  Christ  taught  and  blessed  him. 
The  warnings  that  Christ  had  given  him  were  part  of 
the  training;  and  last  of  all  there  came  that  look  of 
love.  In  His  suffering  Christ  did  not  forget  him, 
but  turned  round  and  looked  upon  him,  and  "  Peter 
went  out  and  wept  bitterly."  And  the  Christ  who 
led  Peter  to  Pentecost  is  waiting  to-day  to  take 
charge  of  every  heart  that  is  willing  to  surrender  it- 
self to  Him. 

Are  there  not  some  saying:  "Ah!  that  is  the  mis- 
chief with  me;  it  is  always  the  self4ife,  and  self=com- 
fort,  and  self^consciousness,  and  self-pleasing,  and 
self-will;  how  am  I  to  get  rid  of  it?" 

My  answer  is:  It  is  Christ  Jesus  who  can  rid  you 
of  it;  none  else  but  Christ  Jesus  can  give  deliverance 
from  the  power  of  self.  And  what  does  He  ask  you 
to  do?  He  asks  that  you  should  humble  yourself  be- 
fore Him. 


IMPOSSIBLE  WITH  MAN,  POSSIBLE 
WITH  GOD. 

"And  He  said,  The  things  which  are  impossible 
with  men  are  possible  with  God." — Liike  xviii.  27. 

Christ  had  said  to  the  rich  young  ruler,  "  Sell  all  that 
thou  hast  .  .  .  and  come,  follow  me."  The  young 
man  went  away  sorrowful.  Christ  then  turned  to  the 
disciples,  and  said:  "  How  hardly  shall  they  that 
have  riches  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God!"  The 
disciples,  we  read,  were  greatly  astonished,  and  an- 
swered: "If  it  is  so  difficult  to  enter  the  kingdom, 
who,  then,  can  be  saved?"  And  Christ  gave  this 
blessed  answer: 

"  The  things  which  are  Impossible  with  men  are 
possible  with  God." 

The  text  contains  two  thoughts — that  m  religion, 
in  the  question  of  salvation  and  of  following  Christ 
by  a  holy  life,  it  is  impossible  for  man  to  do  it.  And 
then  alongside  that  is  the  thought —  What  is  impossi- 
ble icith  man  is  possible  loith  God. 

The  two  thoughts  mark  the  two  great  lessons  that 
man  has  to  learn  in  the  religious  life.  It  often  takes 
a  long  time  to  learn  the  first  lesson,  that  in  religion 
man  can  do  nothing,  that  salvation  is  impossible  to 
man.  And  often  a  man  learns  that,  and  yet  he  does 
not  learn  the  second  lesson — what  has  been  impossi- 
ble to  him  is  possible  with  God.  Blessed  is  the  man 
who  learns  l:)oth  lessons!  The  learning  of  them  marks 
stages  in  the  Christian's  life. 

58 


IMPOSSIBLE  WITH  MAN,  POSSIBLE  WITH  OOD      59 


The  one  stage  is  when  a  man  is  trying  to  do  his  ut- 
most and  fails,  when  a  man  tries  to  do  still  better  and 
fails  again,  when  a  man  tries  still  more  and  always 
fails.  And  yet  very  often  he  does  not  even  then 
learn  the  lesson:  With  man  it  is  impossible  to  serve 
God  and  Christ.  Peter  spent  three  years  in  Christ's 
school,  and  he  never  learned  that  word,  It  is  impossi- 
ble, until  he  had  denied  his  Lord  and  went  out  and 
wept  bitterly.     Then  he  learned  it. 

Just  look  for  a  moment  at  a  man  who  is  learning 
this  lesson.  At  first  he  fights  against  it;  then  he  sub- 
mits to  it,  but  reluctantly  and  in  despair;  at  last  he 
accepts  it  willingly  and  rejoices  in  it.  At  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Christian  life  the  young  convert  has  no 
conception  of  this  truth.  He  has  been  converted,  he 
has  the  joy  of  the  Lord  in  his  heart,  he  begins  to  run 
the  race  and  fight  the  battle;  he  is  sure  he  can  con- 
quer, for  he  is  earnest  and  honest,  and  God  will  help 
him.  Yet,  somehow,  very  soon  he  fails  where  he  did 
not  expect  it,  and  sin  gets  the  better  of  him.  He  is 
disappointed;  but  he  thinks:  "I  was  not  watchful 
enough,  I  did  not  make  my  resolutions  strong  enough." 
And  again  he  vows,  and  again  he  prays,  and  yet  he 
fails.  He  thought:  "Am  I  not  a  regenerate  man? 
Have  I  not  the  life  of  Grod  within  me?"  And  he 
thinks  again:  "Yes,  and  I  have  Christ  to  help  me,  I 
can  live  the  holy  life." 

At  a  later  period  he  comes  to  another  state  of  mind. 
He  begins  to  see  such  a  life  is  impossible,  but  he 
does  not  accept  it.  There  are  multitudes  of  Chris- 
tians who  come  to  this  point:  "I  cannot";  and  then 
think  God  never  expected  them  to  do  what  they  can- 


60      IMPOSSIBLE  WITH  MAN,  POSSIBLE  WITH  GOD 

not  do.  If  you  tell  them  that  God  does  expect  it,  ii 
appears  to  them  a  mystery.  A  good  many  Christians 
are  living  a  low  life,  a  life  of  failure  and  of  sin,  in- 
stead of  rest  and  victory,  because  they  began  to  see: 
"  I  cannot,  it  is  impossible."  And  yet  they  do  not 
understand  it  fully,  and  so,  under  the  impression,  I 
cannot,  they  give  way  to  despair.  They  will  do  their 
best,  but  they  never  expect  to  get  on  very  far. 

But  God  leads  His  children  on  to  a  third  stage, 
when  a  man  comes  to  take  that  w^ord,  It  is  impossible, 
in  its  full  truth,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  says:  "  I 
must  do  it,  and  I  will  do  it — it  is  impossible  for  man, 
and  yet  I  must  do  it";  w^ien  the  renewed  will  begins 
to  exercise  its  whole  power,  and  in  intense  longing 
and  prayer  begins  to  cry  to  God:  ''  Lord,  what  is  the 
meaning  of  this? — how  am  I  to  be  freed  from  the 
power  of  sin?" 

It  is  the  state  of  the  regenerate  man  in  Rom.  vii. 
There  you  will  find  the  Christian  man  trying  his  very 
utmost  to  live  a  holy  life.  God's  law  has  been  re- 
vealed to  him  as  reaching  down  into  the  very  depth 
of  the  desires  of  the  heart,  and  the  man  can  dare  to 
say: 

"  I  delight  in  the  law  of  God  after  the  inward  man. 
To  will  what  is  good  is  present  with  me.  My  heart 
loves  the  law  of  God,  and  my  will  has  chosen  that 
law." 

Can  a  man  like  that  fail,  with  his  heart  full  of  de- 
light in  God's  law  and  with  his  will  determined  to  do 
what  is  right?  Yes.  That  is  v/hat  Rom.  vii.  teaches 
us.  There  is  something  more  needed.  Not  only 
must  I  delight  in  the  law  of  God  after  the  inward 


IMPOSSIBLE  WITH  MAN,  POSSIBLE  WITH  GOD      61 

man,  and  will  what  God  wills,  but  I  need  a  divine 
omnipotence  to  work  it  in  me.  And  that  is  what  the 
Apostle  Paul  teaches  in  Phil,  ii.: 

"  It  is  God  which  worketh  in  you,  both  to  will  and 
to  do." 

Note  the  contrast.  In  Rom.  vii,  the  regenerate  man 
says:  "To  will  is  present  with  me,  but  to  do — I  find 
I  cannot  do.  I  will,  but  I  cannot  perform."  But  in 
Phil,  ii,  you  have  a  man  who  has  been  led  on  farther, 
a  man  who  understands  that  when  God  has  worked 
the  renewed  will,  God  will  give  the  power  to  accom- 
plish what  that  will  desires.     Let  us  receive  this  as 

THE   FIRST   GEEAT    LESSON   IN   THE   SPIKITUAL   LIFE: 

"  It  is  impossible  for  me,  my  God;  let  there  be  an 
end  of  the  flesh  and  all  its  powers,  an  end  of  self, 
and  let  it  be  my  glory  to  be  helpless." 

Praise  God  for  the  divine  teaching  that  makes  us 
helpless! 

When  you  thought  of  absolute  sur]»ender  to  God, 
were  you  not  brought  to  an  end  of  yourself,  and  to 
feel  that  you  could  see  how  you  actually  could  live 
as  a  man  absolutely  surrendered  to  God  every  mo- 
ment of  the  day — at  your  table,  in  your  house,  in  your 
business,  in  the  midst  of  trials  and  temptations?  I 
pray  you  learn  the  lesson  now.  If  you  felt  you  could 
not  do  it,  you  are  on  the  right  road,  if  you  let  your- 
selves be  led.  Accept  that  position,  and  maintain  it 
before  God:  "  My  heart's  desire  and  delight.  Oh  God, 
is  absolute  surrender,  but  I  cannot  perform  it.  It 
is  impossible  for  me  to  live  that  life.     It  is  beyond 


62      IMPOSSIBLE  WITH  MAN,  POSSIBLE  WITH  GOD 

me."  Fall  down  and  learn  that  when  you  are  ut- 
terly helpless,  God  will  come  to  work  in  you  not  only 
to  will,  but  also  to  do. 

II. 

Now  comes  the  second  lesson.  "  The  things  which 
are  impossible  with   men   are  possible  with  God.'''* 

I  said  a  little  while  ago  that  there  is  many  a  man 
w^ho  has  learned  the  lesson.  It  is  impossible  xvith  men, 
and  then  he  gives  up  in  helpless  despair,  and  lives  a 
wretched  Christian  life,  without  joy,  or  strength,  or 
victory.  And  why?  Because  he  does  not  humble 
himself  to  learn  that  other  lesson:  With  God  all 
things  are  possible. 

Your  religious  life  is  every  day  to  be  a  proof  that 
God  works  impossibilities;  your  religious  life  is  to  be 
a  series  of  impossibilities  made  possible  and  actual 
by  God's  almighty  power.  That  is  what  the  Chris- 
tian needs.  He  has  an  almighty  God  that  he  wor- 
ships, and  he  must  learn  to  understand  that  he  does 
not  need  a  little  of  God's  power,  but  he  needs — with 
reverence  be  it  said — the  whole  of  God's  omnipo- 
tence to  keep  him  right,  and  to  live  like  a  Christian. 

The  whole  of  Christianity  is  a  work  of  God's 
omnipotence.  Look  at  the  birth  of  Christ  Jesus. 
That  was  a  miracle  of  divine  power,  and  it  v/as  said 
to  Mary:  "With  God  nothing  shall  be  impossible." 
It  was  the  omnipotence  of  God.  Look  at  Christ's 
resurrection.  We  are  taught  that  it  was  according 
to  the  exceeding  greatness  of  His  mighty  power  that 
God  raised  Christ  from  the  dead. 

Every  tree  must  grow  on  the  root  from  which 
it  springs.    An    oak4ree  three  hundred  years  old 


IMPOSSIBLE  WITH  MAN,  POSSIBLE  WITH  GOD      63 

grows  all  the  time  on  the  one  root  from  which  it  had 
its  beginning.  Christianity  had  its  beginning  in 
the  omnipotence  of  God,  and  in  every  soul  it  must 
have  its  continuance  in  that  omnipotence.  All  the 
possibilities  of  the  higher  Christian  life  have  their 
origin  in  a  new  apprehension  of  Christ's  power  to  work 
all  God's  will  in  us. 

I  want  to  call  upon  you  now  to  come  and  wor- 
ship an  almighty  God.  Have  you  learned  to  do  it? 
Have  you  learned  to  deal  so  closely  with  an  al- 
mighty God  that  you  know  omnipotence  is  working 
in  you?  In  outward  appearance  there  is  often  so 
little  sign  of  it.  The  apostle  Paul  said:  ''  I  was  with 
you  in  weakness  and  in  fear  and  in  much  trembling, 
and  .  .  .  my  preaching  was  ...  in  demon- 
stration of  the  Spirit  and  of  power."  From  the  hu- 
man side  there  was  feebleness,  from  the  divine  side 
there  was  divine  omnipotence.  And  that  is  true  of 
every  godly  life;  and  if  we  would  only  learn  that  lesson 
better,  and  give  a  whole-hearted,  undivided  sur- 
render to  it,  we  should  learn  what  blessedness  there 
is  in  dwelling  every  hour  and  every  moment  with  an 
almighty  God.  Have  you  ever  studied  in  the  Bible 
the  attribute  of  God's  omnipotence?  You  know 
that  it  was  God's  omnipotence  that  created  the  world, 
and  created  light  out  of  darkness,  and  created  man. 
But  have  you  studied  God's  omnipotence  in  the 
works  of  redemption? 

Look  at  Abraham.  When  God  called  him  to  be 
the  father  of  that  people  out  of  which  Christ  was 
to  be  born,  God  said  to  him:  "  I  am  God  Almighty, 
walk  before  me  and  be  thou  perfect."  And  God 
trained  Abraham  to  trust  Him  as  the  Omnipotent 


64       IMPOSSIBLE  WITH  MAN,  POSSIBLE  WITH  GOD 

One;  and  whether  it  was  his  going  out  to  a  land  that 
he  knew  not,  or  his  faith  as  a  pilgrim  amidst  the 
thousands  of  Canaanites, — his  faith  that  said:  This 
is  my  land, — or  whether  it  was  his  faith  in  waiting 
twenty-five  years  for  a  son  in  his  old  age,  against  all 
hope,  or  whether  it  was  the  raisings  up  of  Isaac  from  the 
dead  on  Mount  Moriah  when  he  was  going  to  sacrifice 
him,  Abraham  believed  God.  He  was  strong  in  faith, 
giving  glory  to  God,  because  he  accounted  Him  who 
had  promised  able  to  perform. 

THE    CAUSE    OF    THE    WEAKNESS    OF    YOUR   CHRISTIAN 
LIFE 

is  that  you  want  to  work  it  out  partly,  and  to  let  God 
help  you.  And  that  cannot  be.  You  must  come  to 
be  utterly  helpless,  to  let  God  work,  and  God  will 
work  gloriously. 

It  is  this  that  we  need  if  we  are  indeed  to  be  work- 
ers for  God.  I  could  go  through  Scripture,  and 
prove  to  you  how  Moses,  when  he  led  Israel  out  of 
Egypt;  how  Joshua,  when  he  brought  them  into  the 
land  of  Canaan;  how  all  God's  servants  in  the  Old 
Testament  counted  upon  the  omnipotence  of  God  do- 
ing impossibilities.  And  this  God  lives  to-day,  and 
this  God  is  the  God  of  every  child  of  His.  And  yet 
we  are  some  of  us  wanting  God  to  give  us  a  little 
help  while  we  do  our  best,  instead  of  coming  to  un- 
derstand what  God  wants,  and  to  say:  "I  can  do 
nothing.  God  must  and  will  do  all."  Have  you 
said:  "In  worship,  in  work,  in  sanctification,  in 
obedience  to  God,  I  can  do  nothing  of  myself,  and  so 
my  place  is  to  worship  the  omnipotent  God,  and  to 
believe  that  He  will  work  in  me  every  moment"? 


IMPOSSIBLE  WITH  MAN,  POSSIBLE  WITH  GOD      65 

Oh,  may  God  teacli  us  this!  Oh  that  God  would  by 
His  grace  show  you  vihat  a  God  you  have,  and  to 
what  a  God  you  have  intrusted  yourself, — an  omnipo- 
tent God,  willing  with  His  whole  omnipotence  to 
place  Himself  at  the  disposal  of  every  child  of 
His.  Shall  we  not  take  the  lesson  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
and  say :"  Amen ;  the  things  which  are  impossible 
with  men  are  possible  with  God"? 

Remember  what  w^e  have  said  about  Peter,  his  self= 
confidence,  self=power,  self-will,  and  how  he  came  to 
deny  his  Lord.  You  feel:  "Ah!  there  is  the  self- 
life,  there  is  the  flesh4ife  that  rules  in  me!  "  And 
now,  have  you  believed  that  there  is  deliverance  from 
that?  Have  you  believed  that  Almighty  God  is  able 
so  to  reveal  Christ  in  your  heart,  so  to  let  the  Holy 
Spirit  rule  in  you,  that  the  self4ife  shall  not  have 
power  or  dominion  over  you?  Have  you  coupled  the 
two  together,  and  with  tears  of  penitence  and  with 
deep  humiliation  and  feebleness,  cried  out:  "  O  God, 
it  is  impossible  to  me;  man  cannot  do  it,  but,  glory 
to  Thy  name,  it  is  possible  with  God"?  Have  you 
claimed  deliverance?  Do  it  now.  Put  yourself 
afresh  in  absolute  surrender  into  the  hands  of  a  God 
of  infinite  love;  and  as  infinite  as  His  love  is  His 
power  to  do  it. 

But  again.  We  came  to  the  question  of  absolute 
surrender,  and  felt  that  that  is  the  want  in  the  Church 
of  Christ,  and  that  is  why  the  Holy  Ghost  cannot  fill 
us,  and  why  we  cannot  live  as  people  entirely  separa- 
ted unto  the  Holy  Ghost;  that  is  why  the  flesh  and 
the  self4ife  cannot  be  conquered.  We  have  never 
understood  what  it  is  to  be  absolutely  surrendered  to 
God  as  Jesus  was.     I  know  that  many  a  one  earnest- 


66      IMPOSSIBLE  WITH  MAN,  POSSIBLE  WITH  GOD 

ly  and  honestly  says:  "  Amen,  I  accept  the  message 
of  absolute  surrender  to  God";  and  yet  thinks:  "  Will 
that  ever  be  mine?  Can  I  count  upon  God  to  make 
me  one  of  whom  it  shall  be  said  in  heaven  and  on 
earth  and  in  hell,  He  lives  in  absolute  surrender  to 
God?"  Brother,  sister,  "  the  things  which  are  im- 
possible with  men  are  possible  with  God."  Do  be- 
lieve that  when  He  takes  charge  of  you  in  Christ,  it 
is  possible  for  God  to  make  you  a  man  of  absolute 
surrender.  And  God  is  able  to  maintain  that.  He 
is  able  to  let  you  rise  from  bed  every  morning  of  the 
week  with  that  blessed  thought  directly  or  indirectly : 
"  I  am  in  God's  charge.  My  God  is  working  out  my 
life  for  me." 

Some  are  weary  of  thinking  about  sanctification. 
You  pray,  you  have  longed  and  cried  for  it,  and  yet 
it  appeared  so  far  off!  The  holiness  and  humility  of 
Jesus — you  are  so  conscious  of  how  distant  it  is. 
Beloved  friends,  the  one  doctrine  of  sanctification  that 
is  Scriptural  and  real  and  effectual  is:  "  The  things 
which  are  impossible  with  men  are  possible  with 
God."  God  can  sanctify  men,  and  by  His  almighty 
and  sanctifying  power  every  moment  God  can  keep 
them.  Oh  that  we  might  get  a  step  nearer  to  our 
God  now!  Oh  that  the  light  of  God  might  shine, 
and  that  we  might  know  our  God  better! 

I  could  go  on  to  speak  about  the  life  of  Christ  in 
us — living  like  Christ,  taking  Christ  as  our  Savior 
from  sin,  and  as  our  life  and  strength.  It  is  God  in 
heaven  who  can  reveal  that  in  you.  What  does  that 
prayer  of  the  Apostle  Paul  say :  "  That  He  would 
grant  you  according  to  riches  of  His  glory  " — it  is 
sure  to  be  something  very  wonderful  if  it  is  accord- 


IMPOSSIBLE  WITH  MAN,  POSSIBLE  WITH  GOD     67 

ing  to  the  riches  of  His  glory — "  to  be  strengthened 
with  might  by  His  Spirit  in  the  inner  man"?  Do 
you  not  see  that  it  is  an  omnipotent  God  working  by 
His  omnipotence  in  the  heart  of  His  believing  chil- 
dren, so  that  Christ  can  become  an  indwelling  Savior? 
You  have  tried  to  grasp  it  and  to  seize  it,  and  you 
have  tried  to  believe  it,  and  it  would  not  come.  It 
was  because  you  had  not  been  brought  to  believe 
that  "the  things  which  are  impossible  with  men  are 
possible  with  God." 

And  so,  I  trust  that  the  word  spoken  about  love 
may  have  brought  many  to  see  that  we  must  have  an 
inflowing  of  love  in  quite  a  new  way;  our  heart  must 
be  filled  with  life  from  above,  from  the  Fountain  of 
everlasting  love,  if  it  is  going  to  overflow  all  the  day; 
then  it  will  be  just  as  natural  for  us  to  love  our  fel- 
low men  as  it  is  natural  for  the  lamb  to  be  gentle 
and  the  wolf  to  be  cruel.  Until  I  am  brought  to  such 
a  state  that  the  more  a  man  hates  and  speaks  evil  of 
me,  the  more  unlikable  and  unlovable  a  man  is,  I 
shall  love  him  all  the  more-;  until  I  am  brought 
to  such  a  state  that  the  more  the  obstacles  and  ha- 
tred and  ingratitude,  the  more  can  the  power  of  love 
triumph  in  me — until  I  am  brought  to  see  that,  I  am 
not  saying:  "  It  is  impossible  with  men."  But  if  you 
have  been  led  to  say:  "  This  message  has  spoken  to 
me  about  a  love  utterly  beyond  my  power;  it  is  ab- 
solutely impossible  " — then  we  can  come  to  God  and 
say:  "It  is  possible  with  Thee." 

Some  are  crying  to  God  for  a  great  revival.  I  can 
say  that  that  is  the  prayer  of  my  heart  unceasingly. 
Oh,  if  God  would  only  revive  His  believing  people ! 
I  cannot  think,  in  the  first  place,  of  the  unconverted 


68      IMPOSSIBLE  WITH  MAN,  POSSIBLE  WITH  GOD 

formalists  of  the  Church,  or  of  the  infidels  and  skep- 
tics, or  of  all  the  wretched  and  perishing  around  me; 
my  heart  prays  in  the  first  place:  "My  God,  revive 
Thy  Church  and  people."  It  is  not  for  nothing  that 
there  are  in  thousands  of  hearts  yearnings  after  holi- 
ness and  consecration:  it  is  a  forerunner  of  God's 
power.  God  works  to  ivill  and  then  He  works  to  do. 
These  yearnings  are  a  witness  and  a  proof  that  God 
has  worked  to  ivill.  Oh,  let  us  in  faith  believe  that 
the  omnipotent  God  will  work  to  do  among  His  peo- 
ple more  than  we  can  ask.  "  Unto  Him,"  Paul  said, 
"  who  is  able  to  do  exceeding  abundantly  above  all 
that  we  ask  or  think,  .  .  .  unto  Him  be  glory." 
Let  our  hearts  say  that.  Glory  to  God,  the  Omni- 
potent One,  who  can  do  above  what  we  dare  to  ask  or 
think! 

"The  things  which  are  impossible  with  men  are 
possible  with  God."  All  round  about  you  there  is 
a  world  of  sin  and  sorrow,  and  the  devil  is  there. 
But  remember,  Christ  is  on  the  throne,  Christ  is 
stronger,  Christ  has  conquered,  and  Christ  will  con- 
quer. But  wait  on  God.  My  text  casts  us  down: 
"The  things  which  are  impossible  loith  men^^;  but  it 
ultimately  lifts  us  up  high — ^'  QlTq  possible  ivitli  God,'''' 
Get  linked  to  God.  Adore  and  trust  Him  as  the 
Omnipotent  one,  not  only  for  your  own  life,  but  for 
all  the  souls  that  are  intrusted  to  you.  Never  pray 
without  adoring  His  omnipotence:  and  say:  ''Mighty 
God,  I  claim  Thine  almightiness.''^  And  the  answer 
to  the  prayer  will  come,  and  like  Abraham  you  will 
become  strong  in  faith,  giving  glory  to  God,  because 
you  account  Him  who  hath  promised  able  to  perform. 


"O  WRETCHED  MAN  THAT  I  AMI" 

*'  O  wretched  man  that  I  am !  who  shall  deliver  me 
from  the  body  of  this  death?  I  thank  God  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord." — Rom.  7 :  24,  25. 

You  know  the  wonderful  place  that  this  text  has 
in  the  wonderful  epistle  to  the  Komans.  It  stands 
here  at  the  end  of  tlie  seventh  chapter  as  the 
gateway  into  the  eighth.  In  the  first  sixteen  verses 
of  the  eighth  chapter  the  name  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
found  sixteen  times;  you  have  there  the  description 
and  promise  of  the  life  that  a  child  of  God  can  live 
in  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  This  begins  in  the 
second  verse:  "The  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ 
Jesus  hath  made  me  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and 
death."  From  that  Paul  goes  on  to  speak  of  the 
great  privileges  of  the  child  of  God,  who  is  to  be  led 
by  the  Spirit  of  God.  The  gateway  into  all  this  is 
in  the  twenty=fourth  verse  of  the  seventh  chapter: 

''O  wTetched  man  that  I  am!" 

There  you  have  the  words  of  a  man  who  has  come 
to  the  end  of  himself.  He  has  in  the  previous  verses 
described  how  he  had  struggled  and  wrestled  in  his 
own  power  to  obey  the  holy  law  of  God,  and  had 
failed.  But  in  answer  to  his  own  question  he  now 
finds  the  true  answer  and  cries  out:  *' I  thank  God 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."  From  that  he  goes 
on  to  speak  of  wdiat  that  deliverance  is  that  he  has 
found. 

69 


70  "O  WRETCHED  MAN  THAT  I  AM'' 

I  want  from  these  words  to  describe  the  path  by 
which  a  man  can  be  led  out  of  the  spirit  of  bondage 
into  the  spirit  of  liberty.  You  know  how  distinctly 
it  is  said:  "Ye  have  not  received  the  spirit  of  bond- 
age again  to  fear,"  We  are  continually  warned  that 
this  is  the  great  danger  of  the  Christian  life,  to  go 
again  into  bondage;  and  I  want  to  describe  the  path 
by  which  a  man  can  get  out  of  bondage  into  the  glo- 
rious liberty  of  the  children  of  God.  Rather,  I  want 
to  describe  the  man  himself. 

First,  these  words  are  the  language  of  a  regenerate 
man;  second,  of  an  impotent  man;  thirds  of  a 
wretched  man;  and  fourth,  of  a  man  on  the  borders 
of  comjjlete  liberty. 

In  the  first  place,  then,  we  have  here 

THE   WORDS   OF   A    REGENERATE   MAN. 

You  know  how  much  evidence  there  is  of  that 
from  the  fourteenth  verse  of  the  chapter  on  to  the 
twenty^hird.  "  It  is  no  more  I  that  do  it,  but  sin 
that  dwelleth  in  me":  that  is  the  language  of  a  re- 
generate man,  a  man  who  knows  that  his  heart  and 
nature  have  been  renewed,  and  that  sin  is  now  a 
power  in  him  that  is  not  himself.  "  I  delight  in  the 
law  of  the  Lord  after  the  inward  man":  that  again  is 
the  language  of  a  regenerate  man.  He  dares  to  say 
when  he  does  evil:  "It  is  no  more  I  that  do  it,  but 
sin  that  dwelleth  in  me."  It  is  of  great  importance 
to  understand  this. 

In  the  first  two  great  sections  of  the  epistle,  Paul 
deals  with  justification  and  sanctification.  In  deal- 
ing with  justification,  he  lays  the  fou'idation  of  the 
doctrine  in  the  teaching  about  sin,  not  in  the  singu- 


"O  WRETCHED  MAN  THAT  I  AM''  71 

lar,  *'sm,"  but  in  the  plural,  "sins" — the  actual  trans- 
gressions. In  the  second  part  of  the  fifth  ciiapter  ho 
begins  to  deal  with  sin,  not  as  actual  transgression, 
but  as  a  power.  Just  imagine  what  a  loss  it  would 
have  been  to  us  if  we  had  not  this  second  half  of  the 
seventh  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Komans,  if  Paul 
had  omitted  in  his  teaching  this  vital  question  of  the 
sinfulness  of  the  believer.  We  should  have  missed 
the  question  w^e  all  want  answered  as  to  sin  in  the 
believer.  What  is  the  answer?  The  regenerate  man 
is  one  in  whom  the  will  has  been  renewed,  and  who 
can  say:  "I  delight  in  the  law  of  God  after  the  in- 
ward man." 

But  secondly:  The  7'egenercde  man  is  also 

AN   IMPOTENT   MAN, 

Here  is  the  great  mistake  made  by  many  Christian 
people.  They  think  that  when  there  is  a  renewed 
will  it  is  enough;  but  that  is  not  the  case.  This  re- 
generate man  tells  us:  ^' I ivill  to  do  what  is  good, 
but  the  power  to  perform  I  find  not."  How  often 
people  tell  us  that  if  you  set  yourself  determinedly 
you  can  perform  what  you  will.  But  this  man  was 
as  determined  as  any  man  can  be,  and  yet  he  made 
the  confession:  "To  will  is  i^resent  with  me;  but 
how  to  perform  that  which  is  good,  I  find  not." 

But,  you  ask,  how  is  it  God  makes  a  regenerate 
man  utter  such  a  confession,  with  a  right  will,  with  a 
heart  that  longs  to  do  good,  and  longs  to  do  its  very 
utmost  to  love  God? 

Let  us  look  at  this  question.  What  has  God  given 
us  our  will  for?  Had  the  angels  who  fell,  in  their 
own  will,  the  strength  to  stand?     Verily,  no.     The 


72  "  O  WRETCHED  MAN  THAT  I  AM'' 

will  of  the  creature  is  nothing  but  an  empty  vessel  in 
which  the  power  of  God  is  to  be  made  manifest. 
The  creature  must  seek  in  God  all  that  it  is  to  be. 
You  have  it  in  the  second  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Philippians,  and  you  have  it  here  also,  that  God's 
work  is  to  work  in  us  both  to  will  and  to  do  of  His 
good  pleasure.  Here  is  a  man  who  appears  to  say: 
"God  has  not  worked  to  do  in  me."  But  we  are 
taught  that  God  works  both  to  will  and  to  do.  How 
is  the  apparent  contradiction  to  be  reconciled? 

You  will  find  that  in  this  passage  (Eom.  7:6-25) 
the  name  of  the  Holy  Spirit  does  not  occur  once,  nor 
does  the  name  of  Christ  occur.  The  man  is  wrest- 
ling and  struggling  to  fulfil  God's  law.  In  the 
chapter,  instead  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  of  Christ,  the 
law  is  mentioned  nearly  twenty  times.  It  shows  a 
believer  doing  his  very  best  to  obey  the  law  of  God 
with  his  regenei'ate  will.  Not  only  this;  but  you  will 
find  the  little  words,  "  I,"  "  me,"  "  my,"  occur  more 
than  forty  times.  It  is  the  regenerate  "I"  in  its 
impotence  seeking  to  obey  the  law  w^ithout  being 
filled  with  the  Spirit.  This  is  the  experience  of  al- 
most every  saint.  After  conversion  a  man  begins  to 
do  his  best,  and  he  fails;  but  if  we  are  brought  into 
the  full  light  we  need  fail  no  longer.  Nor  need  we 
fail  at  all  if  we  have  received  the  Spirit  in  His  ful- 
ness at  conversion. 

God  allows  that  failure  that  the  regenerate  man 
should  be  taught  his  own  utter  impotence,  It  is  in 
the  course  of  this  struggle  that  there  comes  to  us  this 
sense  of  our  utter  sinfulness.  It  is  God's  way  of 
dealing  with  us.  He  allows  that  man  to  strive  to 
fulfil  the  law  that,  as  he  strives  and  wrestles,  he  may 


«  0  WRETCHED  MAN  THAT  I  AM"  73 

be  brought  to  this:  "  I  am  a  regenerate  child  of  God, 
but  I  am  utterly  helpless  to  obey  His  law."  See 
what  strong  words  are  used  all  through  the  chapter 
to  describe  this  condition:  "  I  am  carnal,  sold  under 
sin";  "I  see  another  law  in  my  members  bringing 
me  into  captivity";  and  last  of  all,  "  O  wretched  man 
that  I  am!  who  shall  deliver  me  from  the  body  of 
this  death?"  This  believer  who  bows  here  in  deep 
contrition  is  utterly  unable  to  obey  the  law  of  God. 

But  thirdly:  Not  only  is  tJie  mem  lolio  makes  this 
confession  a  regenerate  and  an  impotent  man,  hut 
he  is  also 

A  WRETCHED  MAN. 

He  is  utterly  unhappy  and  miserable;  and  what 
is  it  that  makes  him  so  utterly  miserable?  It  is  be- 
cause God  has  given  him  a  nature  that  loves  Him- 
self. He  is  deeply  wretched  because  he  feels  he  is  not 
obeying  his  God.  He  says,  with  brokenness  of  heart: 
'•It  is  not  I  that  do  it,  but  I  am  under  the  awful  power 
of  sin,  which  is  holding  me  down.  It  is  I,  and 
yet  not  I:  alas!  alas!  it  is  myself;  so  closely  am  I 
bound  up  with  it,  and  so  closely  is  it  intertwined 
with  my  very  nature."  Blessed  be  God  when  a  man 
learns  to  say:  "O  wretched  man  that  I  am!"  from 
the  depth  of  his  heart.  He  is  on  the  way  to  the 
eighth  chapter  of  Romans. 

There  are  many  who  make  this  confession  a  pil- 
low for  sin.  They  say  that  Paul  had  to  confess  his 
weakness  and  helplessness  in  this  way,  what  are  they 
that  they  should  try  to  do  better?  So  the  call  to  ho- 
liness is  quietly  set  aside.  Would  God  that  every 
one  of  us  had  learned  to  say  these  words  in  the  very 


74  "0  WRETCHED  MAN  THAT  I  AM'' 

spirit  in  which  they  are  written  here!  When  we 
hear  sin  spoken  of  as  the  abominable  thing  that  God 
hates,  do  not  many  of  us  wince  before  the  word? 
Would  that  all  Christians  who  go  on  sinning  and 
sinning  would  take  this  verse  to  heart.  If  ever  you 
utter  a  sharp  word  say:  *' O  wretched  man  that  I 
am!"  And  every  time  you  lose  your  temper,  kneel 
down  and  understand .  that  it  never  was  meant  by 
God  that  this  w^as  to  be  the  state  in  which  His  child 
should  remain.  Would  God  that  we  w^ould  take 
this  word  into  our  daily  life,  and  say  it  every  time  we 
are  touched  about  our  own  honor,  and  every  time  we 
say  sharp  things,  and  every  time  W'e  sin  against  the 
Lord  God,  and  against  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  His 
humility,  and  in  His  obedience,  and  in  His  self-sac- 
rifice! Would  to  God  you  could  forget  everything 
else,  and  cry  out:  "O  wretched  man  that  I  am!  who 
shall  deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this  death?  " 

Why  should  you  say  this  wdienever  you  commit 
sin?  Because  it  is  when  a  man  is  brought  to  this 
confession  that  deliverance  is  at  hand. 

And  remember  it  w^as  not  only  the  sense  of  being 
impotent  and  taken  captive  that  made  him  wretched, 
but  it  was  above  all  the  sense  of  sinning  against  his 
God.  The  law  was  doing  its  work,  making  sin  ex- 
ceedliKj  sinful  in  his  sight.  The  thought  .of  contin- 
ually grieving  God  became  utterly  unbearable — it  was 
this  brought  forth  the  piercing  cry:  "O  wretched 
man!  "  As  long  as  we  talk  and  reason  about  our  im- 
potence and  our  failure,  and  only  try  to  find  out 
what  Romans  vii.  means,  it  will  profit  us  but  little; 
but  when  once  everij  sin  gives  new  intensity  to  the 
sense  of  wretchedness,  and  we  feel  our  whole  state  as 


"  O  WRETCHED  MAN  THAT  I  AM"  75 

one  of  not  only  helplessness,  but  actual  exceeding 
einfulness,  we  shall  be  pressed  not  only  to  ask: 
"  Who  shall  deliver  us?"  but  to  cry:  ''  I  thank  God 
through  Jesus  Christ  my  Lord." 

Fourthly:  When  a  man  comes  here  he  is 

ON  THE  VERY  BRINK  OF  DELIVERANCE. 

The  man  has  tried  to  obey  the  beautiful  law  of 
God.  He  has  loved  it,  he  has  wept  over  his  sin, 
he  has  tried  to  conquer,  he  has  tried  to  overcome 
fault  after  fault,  but  every  time  he  has  ended  in  fail- 
ure. 

What  did  he  mean  by  "  the  body  of  this  death  "  ? 
Did  he  mean,  my  body  when  I  die?  Verily  no.  In 
the  eighth  chapter  you  have  the  answer  to  this  ques- 
tion in  the  words:  "  If  ye  through  the  Spirit  do  mor- 
tify the  deeds  of  the  body,  ye  shall  live."  That  is 
the  body  of  death  from  which  he  is  seeking  deliver- 
ance. 

And  now  he  is  on  the  brink  of  deliverance!  In  the 
twenty  third  verse  of  the  seventh  chapter  we  have 
the  w'ords:  "I  see  another  law  in  my  members,  war- 
ring against  the  law  of  my  mind,  and  bringing  me 
into  captivity  to  the  law  of  sin  which  is  in  my  mem- 
bers." Itis  a  captive  that  cries:  ''O  wretched  man 
that  I  am !  who  shall  deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this 
death?"  He  is  a  man  w'ho  feels  himself  bound. 
But  look  to  the  contrast  in  the  second  verse  of  the 
eighth  chapter:  "The  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in 
Christ  Jesus  hath  made  me  free  from  the  law  of  sin 
and  death."  That  is  the  deliverance  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord;  the  liberty  to  the  cai^tive  which 
the    Spirit    brings.       Can    you    keep    captive    any 


76  "O  WRETCHED  MAN  THAT  I  AM" 

longer  a  man  made  free  by  the  "  law  of  the  Spirit  of 
life  in  Christ  Jesus"  ? 

But  you  say,  the  regenerate  man,  had  not  he  the 
Spirit  of  Jesus  when  he  spoke  in  the  sixth  chapter? 
Yes,  hut  he  did  not  knoio  ivhat  the  Holy  Spirit  could 
do  for  him. 

God  does  not  work  by  His  Spirit  as  He  works  by 
a  blind  force  in  nature.  He  leads  His  people  on  as 
reasonable,  intelligent  beings,  and  therefore  when 
He  wants  to  give  us  that  Holy  Spirit  whom  He  has 
promised.  He  brings  us  first  to  the  end  of  self,  to  the 
conviction  that  though  we  have  been  striving  to  obey 
the  law,  we  have  failed.  When  we  have  come  to  the 
end  of  that,  then  He  shows  us  that  in  the  Holy 
Spirit  we  have  the  power  of  obedience,  the  power 
of  victory,  and  the  power  of  real  holiness. 

God  works  to  will,  and  He  is  ready  to  work  to  do, 
but,  alas!  many  Christians  misunderstand  this.  They 
think  because  they  have  the  will  it  is  enough,  and 
that  now  they  are  able  to  do.  This  is  not  so.  The 
new  will  is  a  permanent  gift,  an  attribute  of  the  new 
nature.  The  power  to  do  is  not  a  permanent  gift, 
but  must  be  each  moment  received  from  the  Holy 
Spirit.  It  is  the  man  who  is  conscious  of  his  oion 
impotence  as  a  believer  who  will  learn  that  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  he  can  live  a  holy  life.  This  man  is  on 
the  brink  of  that  great  deliverance;  the  way  has 
been  prepared  for  the  glorious  eighth  chapter.  I  now 
ask  tliis  solemn  question:  Where  are  you  living?  Is 
it  with  you,  ''  O  wretched  man  that  I  am!  who  shall 
deliver  me?"  with  now  and  then  a  little  experience 
of  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit?  or  is  it,  "  I  thank 


"O  WRETCHED  MAN  THAT  I  AM''  77 

Grod  through  Jesus  Christ!  The  law  of  the  Spirit 
hath  set  me  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  of  death"? 

What  the  Holy  Spirit  does  is  to  give  the  victory. 
"If  ye  through  the  Spirit  do  mortify  the  deeds  of 
the  flesh,  ye  shall  live."  It  is  the  Holy  Ghost  who 
does  this — the  third  Person  of  the  Godhead.  He  it 
is  who,  when  the  heart  is  opened  wide  to  receive  Him, 
comes  in  and  reigns  there,  and  mortifies  the  deeds  of 
the  body,  day  by  day,  hour  by  hour,  and  moment  by 
moment. 

I  want  to  bring  this  to  a  point.  Remember,  dear 
friend,  what  we  need  is  to  come  to  decision  and  ac- 
tion. There  are  in  Scripture  two  very  dilBPerent  sorts 
of  Christians.  The  Bible  speaks  in  Romans,  CoiHn- 
thians  and  Galatians  about  yielding  to  the  flesh;  and 
that  is  the  life  of  tens  of  thousands  of  believers.  All 
their  want  of  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  their  want 
of  the  liberty  He  gives,  is  just  owing  to  the  flesh. 
The  Spirit  is  within  them,  but  the  flesh  rules  the 
life.  To  be  led  by  the  Spirit  of  God  is  what  they 
need.  Would  God  that  I  could  make  every  child  of 
His  realize  what  it  means  that  the  Everlasting  God 
has  given  His  dear  Son,  Christ  Jesus,  to  watch  over 
you  every  day,  and  that  what  you  have  to  do  is  to  trust; 
and  that  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  to  enable 
you  every  moment  to  remember  Jesus,  and  to  trust 
Him!  The  Spirit  has  come  to  keep  the  link  with 
Him  unbroken  every  moment.  Praise  God  for  the 
Holy  Ghost!  We  are  so  accustomed  to  think  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  as  a  luxury,  something  for  special  times, 
or  for  special  ministers  and  men.  But  the  Holy 
Spirit  is  necessary  for  every  believer,  every  moment 


78  "  O  WRETCHED  MAN  THAT  1  AM'' 

of  the  day.  Praise  God  you  have  Him,  and  that  He 
gives  you  the  full  experience  of  the  deliverance  in 
Christ,  as  He  makes  you  free  from  the  power  of  sin. 

Who  longs  to  have  the  power  and  the  liberty  of  the 
Holy  Spirit?  Oh,  brother,  bow  before  God  in  one 
final  cry  of  despair: 

"O  God,  must  I  go  on  sinning  this  way  forever? 
Who  shall  deliver  me,  O  wretched  man  that  I  am! 
from  the  body  of  this  death?" 

Are  you  ready  to  sink  before  God,  in  that  cry,  and 
seek  the  power  of  Jesus  to  dwell  and  work  in  you? 
Are  you  ready  to  say:  *' I  thank  God  through  Jesus 
Christ"? 

What  good  does  it  do  that  we  go  to  church  or  at-^ 
tend  conventions,  that  we  study  our  Bibles  and  pray, 
unless  our  lives  are  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit? 
That  is  what  God  wants;  and  nothing  else  will  ena- 
ble us  to  live  a  life  of  power  and  peace.  You  know 
that  when  a  minister  or  parent  is  using  the  cate- 
chism, when  a  question  is  asked  an  answer  is  ex- 
pected. Alas!  how  many  Christians  are  content  with 
the  question  put  here:  "O  wretched  man  that  I  ami 
who  shall  deliver  me  iTom  the  body  of  this  death  ?  " 
but  never  give  the  answer.  Instead  of  answering, 
they  are  silent.  Instead  of  saying:  "  I  thank  God 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord,"  they  are  for  ever  re- 
peating the  question  without  the  answer.  If  you 
want  the  path  to  the  full  deliverance  of  Christ,  and 
the  liberty  of  the  Spirit,  the  glorious  liberty  of  the 
children  of  God,  take  it  through  the  seventh  chapter 
of  Romans;  and  then  say:  "I  thank  God  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."     Be  not  content  to  remain 


"O  WRETCHED  MAN  THAT  I  AM''  79 

ever  groaning,  but  say:  "I,  a  wretched  man,  thank 
God,  through  Jesus  Christ.  Even  though  I  do  not 
see  it  all,  I  am  going  to  praise  God." 

There  is  deliverance,  there  is  the  liberty  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  The  kingdom  of  God  is  "joy  in  the 
Holy  Ghost." 


"HAVING  BEGUN   IN  THE  SPIRIT." 

The  words  from  which  I  wish  to  address  you,  you 
will  find  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  the  third 
chapter,  at  the  third  verse;  let  us  read  the  second 
verse  also:  "  This  only  would  I  learn  of  you,  Eeceived 
ye  the  Spirit  by  the  works  of  the  law,  or  by  the  hear- 
ing of  faith?  Are  ye  so  foolish?"  And  then  comes 
my  text — "  Having  begun  in  the  Spirit,  are  ye  now 
made  perfect  by  the  flesh?" 

When  we  sj)eak  of  the  quickening  or  the  deepen- 
ing or  the  strengthening  of  the  spiritual  life,  we  are 
thinking  of  something  that  is  feeble  and  wrong  and 
sinful;  and  it  a  great  thing  to  take  our  place  before 
God  with  the  confession: 

"  Oh  God,  our  spiritual  life  is  not  what  it  should 
be!" 

May  God  work  that  in  your  heart,  reader. 

As  we  look  round  about  on  the  church  we  see  so 
many  indications  of  feebleness  and  of  failure,  and  of 
sin,  and  of  shortcoming,  that  we  are  compelled  to  ask: 
Why  is  it?  Is  there  any  necessity  for  the  church  of 
Christ  to  be  living  in  such  a  low  state?  Or  is  it  ac- 
tually possible  that  God's  people  should  be  living 
always  in  the  joy  and  strength  of  their  God? 

Every  believing  heart  must  answer:  It  is  possible. 

Then  comes  the  great  question:  Why  is  it,  how  is 
it  to  be  accounted  for,  that  God's  church  as  a  whole 
is  so  feeble,  and  that  the  great  majority  of  Christians 

80 


*' HAVING  BEGUN  IN  THE  SPIRIT^'  81 

are  not  living  up  to  their  privileges?  There  must  be 
a  reason  for  it.  Has  God  not  given  Christ  His  Al- 
mighty Son  to  be  the  Keeper  of  every  believer,  to 
make  Christ  an  ever-present  reality,  and  to  impart 
and  communicate  to  us  all  that  we  have  in  Christ? 
God  has  given  His  Son,  and  God  has  given  His 
Spirit.  How  is  it  that  believers  do  not  live  up  to 
their  privileges? 

We  find  in  more  than  one  of  the  epistles  a  very 
solemn  answer  to  that  question.  There  are  epistles, 
such  as  the  first  to  the  Thessalonians,  where  Paul 
writes  to  the  Christians,  in  effect:  "I  want  you  to 
grow,  to  abound,  to  increase  more  and  more."  They 
were  young,  and  there  were  things  lacking  in  their 
faith,  but  their  state  was  so  far  satisfactory,  and  gave 
him  great  joy,  and  he  writes  time  after  time:  "I 
pray  God  that  you  may  abound  more  and  more;  I 
write  to  you  to  increase  more  and  more."  But  there 
are  other  epistles  where  he  takes  a  very  different 
tone,  especially  the  epistles  to  the  Corinthians  and 
the  Galatians,  and  he  tells  them  in  many  different 
ways  what  the  one  reason  was,  that  they  were  not  liv- 
ing as  Christians  ought  to  live;  many  were  under  the 
power  of  the  flesh.  My  text  is  one  example.  He  re- 
minds them  that  by  the  preaching  of  faith  they  had 
received  the  Holy  Spirit.  He  had  preached  Christ 
to  them;  they  had  accepted  that  Christ,  and  had  re- 
ceived the  Holy  Spirit  in  power.  But  what  hap- 
pened? Having  begun  in  the  Spirit,  they  tried  to 
perfect  the  work  that  the  Spirit  had  begun,  in  the 
flesh  by  their  own  effort.  We  find  the  same  teach- 
ing in  the  epistles  to  the  Corinthians. 

Now,  we  have  here  a  solemn  discovery  of  what  the 


82  ''HAVING  BEGUN  IN  THE  SPIRIT" 

great  want  is  in  the  Church  of  Christ.  God  has 
called  the  Church  of  Christ  to  live  in  the  power  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  church  is  living  for  the  most 
part  in  the  power  of  human  flesh,  and  of  will  and 
energy  and  effort  apart  from  the  Spirit  of  God.  I 
doubt  not  that  that  is  the  case  with  many  individual 
believers;  and  oh,  if  God  will  use  me  to  give  you  a 
message  from  Him,  my  one  message  will  be  this: 
"  If  the  church  will  return  to  acknowledge  that  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  her  strength  and  her  help,  and  if  the 
church  will  return  to  give  up  everything,  and  wait 
upon  God  to  be  filled  with  the  Spirit,  her  days  of 
beauty  and  gladness  will  return,  and  we  shall  see  the 
glory  of  God  revealed  amongst  us."  This  is  my 
message  to  every  individual  believer:  "Nothing  will 
help  you  unless  you  come  to  understand  that  you  must 
live  every  day  under  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 

God  wants  you  to  be  a  living  vessel  in  whom  the 
power  of  the  Spirit  is  to  be  manifested  every  hour 
and  every  moment  of  your  life,  and  God  will  enable 
you  to  be  that. 

Now  let  us  try  and  learn  that  this  word  to  the  Ga- 
latians  teaches  us — some  very  simple  thoughts.  It 
shows  us  how  ( 1 )  the  heginning  of  the  Christian  life 
is  receiving  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  shows  us  (2)  what 
great  danger  there  is  of  forgetting  that  ive  are  to  live 
hy  the  Spirit,  and  not  live  after  the  flesh.  It  shows 
us  (3)  what  are  the  fruits  and  the  proofs  of  our 
seeking  perfection  in  the  flesh.  And  then  it  suggests 
to  us  (4)  the  way  of  deliverance  from  this  state. 

I. 

First  of  all,  Paul  says: "  Having  begun  in  the  Spirit J^ 


''HAVING  BEGUN  IN  THE  SPIRIT'' 


Remember,  the  Apostle  not  only  preached  justifica- 
tion by  faith,  but  he  preached  something  more.  He 
preached  this — the  Epistle  is  full  of  it — that  justified 
men  cannot  live  but  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  that 
therefore  God  gives  to  every  justified  man  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  seal  him.  The  Apostle  says  to  them  in 
effect  more  than  once: 

"  How  did  you  receive  the  Holy  Spirit?  Was  it 
by  the  preaching  of  the  law,  or  by  the  preaching  of 
faith?" 

He  could  point  back  to  that  time  when  there  had 
been  a  mighty  revival  under  his  teaching.  The 
power  of  God  had  been  manifested,  and  the  Galatians 
were  compelled  to  confess: 

"Yes,  we  have  got  the  Holy  Ghost:  accepting 
Christ  by  faith,  by  faith  we  received  the  Holy 
Spirit." 

Now,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  there  are  many  Chris- 
tians who  hardly  know  that  when  they  believed  they 
received  the  Holy  Ghost.  A  great  many  Christians 
can  say:  "I  received  pardon  and  I  received  peace." 
But  if  you  were  to  ask  them:  "Have  you  received  the 
Holy  Ghost?  "  they  would  hesitate,  and  many,  if  they 
were  to  say:  "Yes,"  would  say  it  with  hesitation;  and 
they  would  tell  you  that  they  hardly  knew  what  it 
was,  since  that  time,  to  walk  in  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Let  us  try  and  take  hold  of  this  great  trath: 
The  beginning  of  the  true  Christian  life  is  to  receive 
the  Holy  Ghost.  And  the  work  of  every  Christian 
minister  is  what  was  the  work  of  St.  Paul — to  remind 
his  people  that  they  received  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
must  live  according  to  His  guidance  and  in  His 
power. 


84:  "  HAVING  BEGUN  IN  THE  SPIRIT'' 

If  those  Galatians  who  received  the  Holy  Spirit  in 
power  were  tempted  to  go  astray  by  that  terrible  dan- 
ger of  perfecting  in  the  flesh  what  had  been  begun  in 
the  Spirit,  how  much  more  danger  do  those  Chris- 
tians run  who  hardly  ever  know  that  they  have  re- 
ceived the  Holy  Spirit,  or  who,  if  they  know  it  as  a 
matter  of  belief,  hardly  ever  think  of  it  and  hardly 
ever  praise  God  for  it! 

11. 

But  now  look,  in  the  second  place,  at  the  great  dan- 
ger. 

You  all  know  what  shunting  is  on  a  railway.  A 
locomotive  with  its  train  may  be  run  in  a  certain 
direction,  and  the  points  at  some  place  may  not  be 
properly  opened  or  closed,  and  unobservingly  it  is 
shunted  off  to  the  right  or  to  the  left.  And  if  that 
takes  place,  for  instance,  on  a  dark  night,  the  train 
goes  in  the  w^rong  direction,  and  the  people  might 
never  know  it  until  they  have  gone  some  distance. 

And  just  so  God  gives  Christians  the  Holy  Spirit 
with  this  intention,  that  every  day  all  their  life  should 
be  lived  in  the  power  of  the  Spirit.  A  man  cannot 
live  one  hour  a  godly  life  unless  by  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  He  may  live  a  proper,  consistent  life, 
as  people  call  it,  an  irreproachable  life,  a  life  of  virtue 
and  diligent  service;  but  to  live  a  life  acceptable  to 
God,  in  the  enjoyment  of  God's  salvation  and  God's 
love,  to  live  and  walk  in  the  power  of  the  new  life — 
he  cannot  do  it  unless  he  be  guided  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  every  day  and  every  hour. 

But  now  listen  to  the  danger.  The  Galatians  received 
the  Holy  Ghost,  but  what  was  begun  by  the  Spirit 
they  tried  to  perfect  in  the  flesh.     How?     They  fell 


"  HA  VING  BEG  UN  IN  THE  SPIRI  r  "  85 

back  again  under  Judaising  teachers  who  told  them 
they  must  be  circumcised.  They  began  to  seek  their 
religion  in  external  observances.  And  so  Paul  uses 
that  expression  about  those  teachers  who  had  them 
circumcised,  that  "  they  sought  to  glory  in  their 
flesh." 

You  sometimes  hear  the  expression  used,  religious 
flesh.  What  is  meant  by  that?  It  is  simply  an  ex- 
pression made  to  give  utterance  to  this  thought:  My 
human  nature  and  my  human  will  and  my  human 
effort  can  be  very  active  in  religion,  and  after  being 
converted,  and  after  receiving  the  Holy  Ghost,  I  may 
begin  in  my  own  strength  to  try  to  serve  God. 

I  may  be  very  diligent  and  doing  a  great  deal,  and 
yet  all  the  time  it  is  more  the  work  of  human  flesh 
than  of  God's  Spirit.  What  a  solemn  thought,  that 
man  can,  without  noticing  it,  be  shunted  off  from  the 
line  of  the  Holy  Ghost  on  to  the  line  of  the  flesh; 
that  he  can  be  most  diligent  and  make  great  sacrifices, 
and  yet  it  is  all  in  the  power  of  the  human  will!  Ah, 
the  great  question  for  us  to  ask  of  God  in  self-exam- 
ination is  that  we  may  be  shown  whether  our  religious 
life  is  lived  more  in  the  power  of  the  flesh  than  in  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  A  man  may  be  a  preacher, 
he  may  work  most  diligently  in  his  ministry,  a  man 
may  be  a  Christian  worker,  and  others  may  tell  of 
him  that  he  makes  great  sacrifices,  and  yet  you  can 
feel  there  is  a  want  about  it.  You  feel  that  he  is  not 
a  spiritual  man;  there  is  no  spirituality  about  his  life. 
How  many  Christians  there  are  about  whom  no  one 
would  ever  think  of  saying:  "  What  a  spiritual  man 
he  is!  "  Ah!  there  is  the  weakness  of  the  Church  of 
Christ.    It  is  all  in  that  one  wovd— flesh. 


86  "HAVING  BEGUN  IN  THE  SPIRIT" 

Now,  the  flesli  may  manifest  itself  in  many  ways. 
It  may  be  manifested  in  fleshly  wisdom.  My  mind 
may  be  most  active  about  religion.  I  may  preach  or 
write  or  think  or  meditate,  and  delight  in  being  occu- 
pied with  things  in  God's  Book  and  in  God's  King- 
dom; and  yet  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  may  be 
markedly  absent.  I  fear  that  if  you  take  the  preach- 
ing throughout  the  Church  of  Christ  and  ask  why 
there  is,  alas!  so  little  converting  power  in  the  preach- 
ing of  the  Word,  why  there  is  so  much  work  and 
often  so  little  result  for  eternity,  why  the  Word  has 
so  little  power  to  build  up  believers  in  holiness  and 
in  consecration, — the  answer  will  come:  It  is  the 
absence  of  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  And  why  is 
this?  There  can  be  no  other  reason  but  that  the 
flesh  and  human  energy  have  taken  the  place  that  the 
Holy  Ghost  ought  to  have.  That  was  true  of  the  Gal- 
atians,  it  was  true  of  the  Corinthians.  You  know 
Paul  said  to  them:  "I  cannot  speak  to  you  as  to 
spiritual  men;  you  ought  to  be  spiritual  men,  but  you 
are  carnal,"  And  you  know  how  often  in  the  course 
of  his  epistles  he  had  to  reprove  and  condemn  them 
for  strife  and  for  divisions. 

III. 

A  third  thought:  What  are  the  proof s  or  indica- 
tions that  a  church  like  the  Galatians,  or  a  Christian, 
is  serving  God  in  the  power  of  the  flesh — is  perfect- 
incjin  the  flesh  what  ivas  begun  in  the  Spirit? 

The  answer  is  very  easy.  Religious  self-effort 
always  ends  in  sinful  flesh.  What  was  the  state  of 
those  Galatians?  Striving  to  be  justified  by  the 
works  of  the  law.     And  yet  they  were  quarreling  and 


''HAVING  BEGUN  IN  THE  SPIRIT"  87 

in  danger  of  devouring  one  another.  Count  up  the 
expressions  that  the  Apostle  uses  to  indicate  their 
want  of  love,  and  you  will  find  more  than  twelve — 
envy,  jealousy,  bitterness,  strife,  and  all  sorts  of  ex- 
pressions. Read  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  chapters 
what  he  says  about  that.  You  see  how  they  tried  to 
serve  God  in  their  own  strength,  and  they  failed  ut- 
terly. All  this  religious  effort  resulted  in  failure. 
The  power  of  sin  and  the  sinful  flesh  got  the  better 
of  them,  and  their  whole  condition  was  one  of  the 
saddest  that  could  be  thought  of. 

This  comes  to  us  with  unsjDeakable  solemnity. 
There  is  a  complaint  everywhere  in  the  Christian 
Church  of  the  want  of  a  high  standard  of  integrity 
and  godliness,  even  among  the  professing  members  of 
Christian  churches.  I  remember  a  sermon  which  I 
heard  preached  by  Dr.  Dykes  on  commercial  moral- 
ity, and  he  spoke  of  what  was  to  be  found  in  London. 
And  oh,  if  we  speak  not  only  of  the  commercial  mo- 
rality or  immorality  that  is  to  be  found  in  London,  but 
if  we  go  into  the  homes  of  Christians,  and  if  we 
think  of  the  life  to  which  God  has  called  His  children, 
and  which  He  enables  them  to  live  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  if  we  think  of  how  much,  nevertheless, 
there  is  of  unlovingness  and  temper  and  sharpness 
and  bitterness,  and  if  we  think  how  much  there  is 
very  often  of  strife  amongst  the  members  of  churches, 
and  how  much  there  is  of  envy  and  jealousy  and  sen- 
sitiveness and  pride,  then  we  are  compelled  to  say: 
"  Where  are  marks  of  the  presence  of  the  Spirit  of 
the  Lamb  of  God?  "     Wanting,  sadly  wanting! 

Many  people  speak  of  these  things  as  though  they 
were  the  natural  result  of  our  feebleness,  and  cannot 


88  ''HAVING  BEGUN  IN  THE  SPIRIT'' 

well  be  helped.  Many  people  speak  of  these  things 
as  sins,  yet  have  given  up  the  hope  of  conquering 
them.  Many  people  siDeak  of  these  things  in  the 
Church  around  them,  and  do  not  see  the  least  pros- 
pect of  ever  having  the  things  changed.  There  is  no 
prospect  until  there  comes  a  radical  change,  until  the 
Church  of  God  begins  to  see  that  every  sin  in  the  be- 
liever comes  from  the  flesh,  from  a  fleshly  life  amidst 
our  religious  activities,  from  a  striving  in  self=effort 
to  serve  God.  Until  we  learn  to  make  confession, 
and  until  we  begin  to  see  v/e  must  somehow  or  other 
get  God's  Spirit  in  power  back  to  His  Church,  we 
must  fail.  Where  did  the  Church  begin  in  Pente- 
cost? There  they  began  in  the  Spirit.  But,  alas, 
how  the  Church  of  the  next  century  went  off  into  the 
flesh!  They  thought  to  perfect  the  Church  in  the 
flesh. 

Do  not  let  us  think,  because  the  blessed  Reforma- 
tion restored  the  great  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith,  that  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  was  then 
fully  restored.  If  it  is  our  faith  that  God  is  going  to 
have  mercy  on  His  Church  in  these  last  ages,  it  will 
be  because  the  doctrine  and  the  truth  about  the  Holy 
Spirit  will  not  only  be  studied,  but  sought  after  with 
a  whole  heart;  and  not  only  because  that  truth  will 
be  sought  after,  but  because  ministers  and  congrega- 
tions will  be  found  bowing  before  God  in  deep  abase- 
ment with  one  cry:  "  We  have  grieved  God's  Spirit; 
we  have  tried  to  be  Christian  churches  with  as  little 
as  possible  of  God's  Spirit;  we  have  not  sought  to  be 
churches  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost." 

All  the  feebleness  in  the  Church  is  owing  to  the 
refusal  of  the  Church  to  obey  its  God. 


HAVING  BEGUN  IN  THE  SPIRIT' 


And  why  is  that  so?  I  know  your  answer.  You 
say:  "  We  are  too  feeble  and  too  helpless,  and  we  try 
to  obey,  and  we  vow  to  obey,  but  somehow  we  fail." 

Ah,  yes;  you  fail  because  you  do  not  accept  the 
strength  of  God,  God  alone  can  work  out  His  will 
in  you.  You  cannot  work  out  God's  will,  but  His 
Holy  Spirit  can;  and  until  the  Church,  until  believers 
grasp  this,  and  cease  trying  by  human  effort  to  do 
God's  will,  and  wait  upon  the  Holy  Spirit  to  come 
with  all  His  omnipotent  and  enabling  power,  the 
Church  will  never  be  what  God  wants  her  to  be,  and 
what  God  is  willing  to  make  of  her. 

IV. 

I  come  now  to  my  last  thought,  the  question :  What 
is  the  ivay  to  restoration  f 

Beloved  friend,  the  answer  is  simple  and  easy.  If 
that  train  has  been  shunted  off,  there  is  nothing  for 
it  but  to  come  back  to  the  point  at  which  it  was  led 
away.  The  Galatians  had  no  other  way  in  returning 
but  to  come  back  to  where  they  had  gone  wrong,  to 
come  back  from  all  religious  effort  in  their  own 
strength,  and  from  seeking  anything  by  their  ow^n 
work,  and  to  yield  themselves  humbly  to  the  Holy 
Spirit.     There  is  no  other  way  for  us  as  individuals. 

Is  there  any  brother  or  sister  whose  heart  is  con- 
scious: "Alas!  my  life  knows  but  little  of  the  iDower 
of  the  Holy  Ghost "  ?  I  come  to  you  with  God's 
message  that  you  can  have  no  conception  of  what 
your  life  would  be  in  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
It  is  too  high  and  too  blessed  and  too  wonderful,  but 
I  bring  you  the  message  that  just  as  truly  as  the  ever- 
lasting Son  of  God  came  to  this  world  and  wrought 


90  ''HAVING  BEGUN  IN  THE  SPIRIT" 

His  wonderful  works,  that  just  as  truly  as  on  Calvary 
He  died  and  wrought  out  your  redemption  by  His 
precious  blood,  so,  just  as  truly,  can  the  Holy  Spirit 
come  into  your  heart  that  with  His  divine  power  He 
may  sanctify  you  and  enable  you  to  do  God's  blessed 
will,  and  fill  your  heart  with  joy  and  with  strength. 
But,  alas!  we  have  forgotten,  we  have  grieved,  we 
have  dishonored  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  He  has  not 
been  able  to  do  His  work.  But  I  bring  you  the  mes- 
sage: The  Father  in  heaven  loves  to  fill  His  children 
with  His  Holy  Spirit.  God  longs  to  give  each  one 
individually,  separately,  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
for  daily  life.  The  command  comes  to  us  individual- 
ly, unitedly.  God  wants  us  as  His  children  to  arise 
and  place  our  sins  before  Him,  and  to  call  upon  Him 
for  mercy.  Oh,  are  ye  so  foolish?  having  begun  in 
the  Spirit,  are  ye  perfecting  in  the  flesh  that  which 
was  begun  in  the  Spirit?  Let  us  bow  in  shame,  and 
confess  before  God  how  our  fleshly  religion,  our  self= 
effort,  and  self=confidence,  have  been  the  cause  of 
every  failure. 

I  have  often  been  asked  by  young  Christians:  "  Why 
is  it  that  I  fail  so?  I  did  so  solemnly  vow  with  my 
whole  heart,  and  did  desire  to  serve  God;  why  have  I 
failed?  " 

To  such  I  always  give  the  one  answer:  "My  dear 
friend,  you  are  trying  to  do  in  your  own  strength 
what  Christ  alone  can  do  in  you." 

And  when  they  tell  me:  "I  am  sure  I  knew  Christ 
alone  could  do  it,  I  was  not  trusting  in  myself,"  my 
answer  always  is: 

"  You  were  trusting  in  yourself  or  you  could  not 


''HAVING  BEGUN  IN  THE  SPIRIT''  91 

have  failed.  If  you  had  trusted  Christ,  He  could  not 
fail." 

Oh,  this  perfecting  in  the  flesh  what  was  begun  in 
the  Spirit  runs  far  deex^er  through  us  than  we  know. 
Let  us  ask  God  to  discover  to  us  that  it  is  only  when 
we  are  brought  to  utter  shame  and  emptiness  that  we 
shall  be  prepared  to  receive  the  blessing  that  comes 
from  on  high. 

And  so  I  come  with  these  two  questions.  Are  you 
living,  beloved  brother^minister — I  ask  it  of  every 
minister  of  the  gospel — are  you  living  under  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Ghost?  Are  you  living  as  an 
anointed,  Spirit^filled  man  in  your  ministry  and  your 
life  before  God?  O  brethren,  our  place  is  an  awful 
one.  We  have  to  show  people  what  God  will  do  for 
us,  not  in  our  words  and  teaching,  but  in  our  life. 
God  help  us  to  do  it! 

I  ask  it  of  every  member  of  Christ's  Church  and  of 
every  believer:  Are  you  living  a  life  under  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  day  by  day,  or  are  you  at- 
tempting to  live  without  that  ?  Remember  you  cannot. 
Are  you  consecrated,  given  up  to  the  Spirit  to  work 
in  you  and  to  live  in  you?  Oh,  come  and  confess 
every  failure  of  temper,  every  failure  of  tongue  how- 
ever small,  every  failure  owing  to  the  absence  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  and  the  presence  of  the  power  of  self. 
Are  you  consecrated,  are  you  given  up  to  the  Holy 
Spirit? 

If  your  answer  be  No,  then  I  come  with  a  second 
question — Are  you  willing  to  be  consecrated?  Are 
you  willing  to  give  up  yourself  to  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Spirit? 

You  know  very  well,  I  trust,  that 


92  ''HAVING  BEGUN  IN  THE  SPIRIT" 


THE    HUMAN   SIDE   OF   CONSECRATION 

will  not  help  you.  I  may  consecrate  myself  a  hun- 
dred times  with  all  the  intensity  of  my  being,  and 
that  will  not  help  me.  What  will  help  me  is  this — 
that  God  from  heaven  accepts  and  seals  the  conse- 
cration. 

And  now  are  you  willing  to  give  yourselves  up  to 
the  Holy  Spirit?  You  can  do  it  now.  A  great  deal 
may  still  be  dark  and  dim,  and  beyond  what  we  un- 
derstand, and  you  may  feel  nothing;  but  come.  God 
alone  can  effect  the  change.  God  alone,  who  gave 
us  the  Holy  Spirit,  can  restore  the  Holy  Spirit  in 
power  into  our  life.  God  alone  can  "  strengthen  us 
with  might  by  His  Spirit  in  the  inner  man."  And 
to  every  w^aiting  heart  that  will  make  the  sacrifice, 
and  give  up  everything,  and  give  time  to  cry  and 
pray  to  God,  the  answer  will  come.  The  blessing  is 
not  far  off.  Our  God  delights  to  help  us.  He  will 
enable  us  to  perfect,  not  in  the  flesh,  but  in  the 
Spirit,  what  was  begun  in  the  Spirit. 


KEPT  BY  THE  POWER  OF  GOD. 

The  words  from  which  I  speak,  you  will  find  in  1 
Pet.  i.o.  The  third  and  fourth  verses  are:  "Bless- 
ed be  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
who,  .  .  .  hath  begotten  us  again  unto  a  lively 
hope  by  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  from  the 
dead;  to  an  inheritance  incorruptible  ...  re- 
served in  heaven  for  you  "  (and  then  the  fifth  verse), 
"  who  are  kept  by  the  power  of  God  through  faith 
unto  salvation.  The  words  of  my  text  are:  "  Kept 
by  the  power  of  God  through  faith." 

There  we  have  two  wonderful,  blessed  truths  about 
the  keeping  by  which  a  believer  is  kept  unto  salva- 
tion. One  truth  is,  Kept  by  the  power  of  God;  and 
the  other  truth  is.  Kept  through  faith.  We  should 
look  at  the  two  sides — at  God's  side  and  His  almighty 
power;  offered  to  us  to  be  our  Keeper  every  moment 
of  the  day;  and  at  the  human  side,  we  having  nothing 
to  do  but  in  faith  to  let  God  do  His  keeping  work. 
We  are  begotten  again  to  an  inheritance  kept  in 
heaven  for  us;  and  we  are  kept  here  on  earth  by  the 
power  of  God.  We  see  there  is  a  double  keeping — 
the  inheritance  kept  for  me  in  heaven,  and  I  on  earth 
kept  for  the  inheritance  there. 

Now,  as  to  the  first  part  of  this  keeping,  there  is 
no  doubt  and  no  question.  God  keeps  the  inherit- 
ance in  heaven  very  wonderfully  and  perfectly,  and 
it  is  waiting  there  most  safely.    And  the  same   God 

93 


94  KEPT  BY  THE  POWER  OF  GOD 

keeps  me  for  the  inheritance.  That  is  what  I  want 
to  understand. 

You  know  it  is  very  foolish  of  a  father  to  take 
great  trouble  to  have  an  inheritance  for  his  children, 
and  to  keep  it  for  them,  if  he  does  not  keep  them  for 
it.  What  would  you  think  of  a  man  spending  his 
whole  time  and  making  every  sacrifice  to  amass  mon- 
ey, and  as  he  gets  his  tens  of  thousands,  you  ask  him 
why  it  is  that  he  sacrifices  himself  so,  and  his  answer 
is:  "I  want  to  leave  my  children  a  large  inheritance, 
and  I  am  keeping  it  for  them  " — if  you  were  then  to 
hear  that  that  man  takes  no  trouble  to  educate  his 
children,  that  he  allows  them  to  run  upon  the  street 
wild,  and  to  go  on  in  paths  of  sin  and  ignorance  and 
folly,  what  would  you  think  of  him?  Would  not  you 
say:  "Poor  man!  he  is  keeping  an  inheritance  for  his 
children,  but  he  is  not  keeping  or  preparing  his  chil- 
dren for  the  inheritance"!  And  there  are  so  many 
Christians  who  think:  "My  God  is  keeping  the  in- 
heritance for  me";  but  they  cannot  believe:  "My 
God  is  keeping  me  for  that  inheritance."  The  same 
power,  the  same  love,  the  same  God  doing  the  double 
work. 

Now,  I  want  to  speak  about  a  work  God  does  upon 
us — keeping  us  for  the  inheritance.  I  have  already 
said  that  we  have  two  very  simple  truths:  the  one 
the  divine  side — we  are  kept  by  the  power  of  God; 
the  other,  the  human  side — ice  are  kept  through 
faith. 

I. 

First,  look  at  the  divine  side — 


KEPT  BY  THE  POWER  OF  GOD  95 


KEPT  BY  THE  POWER  OF  GOD. 

Think,  first  of  all,  that  this  keeping  is  all-inclusive. 

What  is  kept?  You  are  kept.  How  much  of  you? 
The  whole  being.  Does  God  keep  one  part  of  you 
and  not  another?  No.  Some  people  have  an  idea 
that  this  is  a  sort  of  vague,  general  keeping,  and  that 
God  will  keep  them  in  such  a  way  that  when  they  die 
they  will  get  to  heaven.  But  they  do  not  apply  that 
word  kept  to  everything  in  their  being  and  nature. 
And  yet  that  is  what  God  wants. 

Here  I  have  a  watch.  Suppose  that  this  watch 
had  been  borrowed  from  a  friend,  and  he  said  to  me: 

"  When  you  go  to  Europe  I  will  let  you  take  it 
with  you,  but  mind  you  keep  it  safely  and  bring  it 
back." 

And  suppose  I  injured  the  watch,  and  had  the 
hands  broken,  and  the  face  defaced,  and  some  of  the 
wheels  and  springs  spoiled,  and  took  it  back  in  that 
condition,  and  handed  it  to  my  friend,  he  would  say: 

"  Ah,  but  I  gave  you  that  watch  on  condition  that 
you  would  keep  it." 

"  Have  I  not  kept  it?     There  is  the  watch." 

"  But  I  did  not  want  you  to  keep  it  in  that  gen- 
eral way,  so  that  you  should  bring  me  back  only  the 
shell  of  the  watch,  or  the  remains.  I  expected  you 
to  keep  every  part  of  it." 

And  so  God  does  not  want  to  keep  us  in  this  gen- 
eral way,  so  that  at  the  last,  somehow  or  other,  we 
shall  be  saved  as  by  fire,  and  just  get  into  heaven. 
But  the  keeping  power  and  the  love  of  God  applies 
to  every  particular  of  our  being. 


96  KEPT  BY  THE  POWER  OF  GOD 

There  are  some  people  who  think  God  will  keep 
them  in  spiritual  things,  but  not  in  temporal  things. 
This  latter,  they  say,  lies  outside  of  His  line.  Now, 
God  sends  you  to  work  in  the  world,  but  He  did  not 
say:  "  I  must  now  leave  you  to  go  and  earn  your  own 
money,  and  to  get  your  livelihood  for  yourself."  He 
knows  you  are  not  able  to  keep  yourself.  But  God 
says:  "My  child,  there  is  no  work  you  are  to  do, 
and  no  business  in  which  you  are  engaged,  and  not  a 
cent  which  you  are  to  spend,  but  I,  your  Father,  will 
take  that  up  into  my  keeping."  God  not  only  cares 
for  the  spiritual,  but  for  the  temporal  also.  The 
greater  part  of  the  life  of  many  people  must  be  spent, 
sometimes  eight  or  nine  or  ten  hours  a  day,  amid  the 
temptations  and  distractions  of  business;  but  God  will 
care  for  you  there.     The  keeping  of  God  includes  all. 

There  are  other  people  who  think:  "Ah!  in  time  of 
trial  God  keeps  me,  but  in  times  of  prosperity  I  do 
not  need  His  keeping;  then  I  forget  Him  and  let  Him 
go."  Others,  again,  think  the  very  opposite.  They 
think:  "In  time  of  prosperity,  when  things  are 
smooth  and  quiet,  1  am  able  to  cling  to  God,  but 
when  heavy  trials  come,  somehow  or  other  my  will 
rebels,  and  God  does  not  keep  me  then." 

Now,  I  bring  you  the  message  that  in  prosperity  as 
in  adversity,  in  the  sunshine  as  in  the  dark,  your 
God  is  ready  to  keep  you  all  the  time. 

Then  again,  there  are  others  who  think  of  this 
keeping  thus:  "  God  will  keep  me  from  doing  very 
great  wickedness,  but  there  are  small  sins  I  cannot 
expect  God  to  keep  me  from.  There  is  the  sin  of 
temper.     I  cannot  expect  God  to  conquer  that." 

When  you  hear  of  some  man  who  has  been  tempted 


KEPT  BY  THE  POWER  OF  GOD  97 

and  gone  astray  or  fallen  into  drunkenness  or  mur- 
der, you  thank  God  for  His  keeping  power. 

"  I  might  have  done  the  same  as  that  man,"  you 
say,  "  if  God  had  not  kept  me."  And  you  believe  He 
kept  you  from  drunkenness  and  murder. 

And  why  do  you  not  believe  that  God  can  keep 
you  from  outbreaks  of  temper?  You  thought  that 
this  was  of  less  importance;  you  did  not  remember 
that  the  great  commandment  of  the  New  Testament 
is — "  Love  one  another  as  I  have  loved  you."  And 
when  your  temper  and  hasty  judgment  and  sharp 
words  came  out,  you  sinned  against  the  highest  law — 
the  law  of  God's  love.  And  yet  you  say:  "  God  will 
not,  God  cannot" — no,  you  will  not  say,  God  cannot; 
but  you  say,  "  God  does  not  keep  me  from  that." 
You  perhaps  say:  "He  can;  but  there  is  something 
in  me  that  cannot  attain  to  it,  and  which  God  does 
not  take  away." 

I  want  to  ask  you.  Can  believers  live  a  holier  life 
than  is  generally  lived?  Can  believers  experience 
the  keeping  power  of  God  all  the  day,  to  keej)  them 
from  sin?  Can  believers  be  kept  in  fellowship  with 
God?  And  I  bring  you  a  message  from  the  Word  of 
God,  in  these  words:  Kept  by  the  poiver  of  God. 
There  is  no  qualifying  clause  to  them.  The  mean- 
ing is,  that  if  you  will  intrust  yourself  entirely  and 
absolutely  to  the  omnipotence  of  God, 

HE   WILL   DELIGHT   TO   KEEP   YOU. 

Some  people  think  that  they  never  can  get  so  far 
as  that  every  word  of  their  mouth  should  be  to  the 
glory  of  God.  But  it  is  what  God  wants  of  them,  it 
is  what  God  expects  of  them.     God  is  willing  to  set 


98  KEPT  BY  THE  POWER  OF  GOD 

a  watch  at  the  door  of  their  mouth,  and  if  God  will 
do  that,  cannot  He  keep  their  tongue  and  their  lips? 
He  can;  and  that  is  what  God  is  going  to  do  for 
them  that  trust  Him.  God's  keeping  is  all=inclusive, 
and  let  every  one  who  longs  to  live  a  holy  life  think 
out  all  their  needs,  and  all  their  weaknesses,  and  all 
their  shortcomings,  and  all  their  sins,  and  say  delib- 
erately: "Is  there  any  sin  that  my  God  can  not  keep 
me  from?"  And  the  heart  will  have  to  answer:  "No; 
God  can  help  me  from  every  sin." 

Secondly,  if  you  want  to  understand  this  keeping, 
remember  that  it  is  not  only  an  all4nclusive  keeping, 
but  it  is 

AN   ALMIGHTY   KEEPING. 

I  want  to  get  that  truth  burned  into  my  soul,  I 
want  to  worship  God  until  my  whole  heart  is  filled 
with  the  thought  of  His  omnipotence.  God  is  al- 
mighty, and  the  Almighty  God  ofiPers  Himself  to 
work  in  my  heart,  to  do  the  work  of  keeping  me; 
and  I  want  to  get  linked  with  Omnipotence,  or 
rather,  linked  to  the  Omnipotent  One,  to  the  living 
God,  and  to  have  my  place  in  the  hollow  of  His 
hand.  You  read  the  Psalms,  and  you  think  of  the 
wonderful  thoughts  in  many  of  the  expressions  that 
David  uses;  as,  for  instance,  when  he  speaks  about 
God  being  our  God,  our  Fortress,  our  Refuge,  our 
Strong  Tower,  our  Strength,  and  our  Salvation. 
David  had  very  wonderful  views  of  how  the  everlast- 
ing God  is  Himself  the  hiding=place  of  the  believing 
soul,  and  of  how  He  takes  the  believer  and  keeps 
him  in  the  very  hollow  of  His  hand,  in  the  secret  of 
His  pavilion,  under  the  shadow  of  His  wings,  under 


KEPT  BY  THE  POWER  OF  GOD  99 

His  very  feathers.  And  there  David  lived.  And 
oh,  we  who  are  the  children  of  Pentecost,  we  who 
have  known  Christ  and  His  blood  and  the  Holy 
Ghost  sent  down  from  heaven,  why  is  it  we  know  so 
little  of  what  it  is  to  walk  tremblingly  step  by  step 
with  the  Almighty  God  as  our  Keeper? 

Have  you  ever  thought  that  in  every  action  of 
grace  in  your  heart  you  have  the  whole  omnipotence 
of  God  engaged  to  bless  you?  When  I  come  to  a 
man  and  he  bestows  upon  me  a  gift  of  money,  I  get 
it  and  go  away  with  it.  He  has  given  me  something 
of  his;  the  rest  he  keeps  for  himself.  But  that  is 
not  the  way  with  the  power  of  God.  God  can  part 
with  nothing  of  His  own  power,  and  therefore  I  can 
experience  the  power  and  goodness  of  God  only  so 
far  as  I  am  in  contact  and  fellowship  with  Himself; 
and  when  I  come  into  contact  and  fellowship  with 
Himself  I  come  into  contact  and  fellowship  with  the 
whole  omnipotence  of  God,  and  have  the  omnipo- 
tence of  God  to  help  me  every  day. 

A  son  has,  perhaps,  a  very  rich  father,  and  as  the 
former  is  about  to  commence  business  the  father 
says:  "You  can  have  as  much  money  as  you  want 
for  your  undertaking."  All  the  father  has  is  at  the 
disposal  of  the  son.  And  that  is  the  way  with  God, 
your  Almighty  God.  You  can  hardly  take  it  in;  you 
feel  yourself  such  a  little  worm.  His  omnipotence 
needed  to  keep  a  little  worm!  Yes,  His  omnipotence 
is  needed  to  keep  every  little  worm  that  lives  in  the 
dust,  and  also  to  keep  the  universe,  and  therefore 
His  omnipotence  is  much  more  needed  in  keeping 
your  soul  and  mine  from  the  power  of  sin. 

Oh,  if  you  want  to  grow  in  grace,  do  learn  to  be- 


100  KEPT  BY  THE  POWER  OF  GOD 

gin  here.  In  all  your  judgings  and  meditations  and 
thoughts  and  deeds  and  questionings  and  studies  and 
prayers,  learn  to  be  kept  by  your  Almighty  God. 
What  is  Almighty  God  not  going  to  do  for  the  child 
that  trusts  Him?  The  Bible  says:  "Above  all  that 
we  can  ask  or  think."  It  is  Omnipotence  you  must 
learn  to  know  and  trust,  and  then  you  will  live  as  a 
Christian  ought  to  live.  How  little  we  have  learned 
to  study  God,  and  to  understand  that  a  godly  life  is 
a  life  full  of  God,  a  life  that  loves  God  and  waits  on 
Him,  and  trusts  Him,  and  allows  Him  to  bless  it! 
We  cannot  do  the  will  of  God  except  by  the  power 
of  God.  God  gives  us  the  first  exx3erience  of  His 
power  to  prepare  us  to  long  for  more,  and  to  come 
and  claim  all  that  He  can  do.  God  help  us  to  trust 
Him  every  day. 

Another  thought.  This  keeping  is  not  only  alMn- 
clusive  and  omnipotent,  but  also 

CONTINUOUS   AND   UNBROKEN. 

People  sometimes  say:  "For  a  week  or  a  month 
God  has  kept  me  very  wonderfully:  I  have  lived  in 
the  light  of  His  countenance,  and  I  cannot  say  what 
joy  I  have  not  had  in  fellowship  with  Him.  He  has 
blessed  me  in  my  work  for  others.  He  has  given  me 
souls,  and  at  times  I  felt  as  if  I  were  carried  heaven- 
wards on  eagle  wings.  But  it  did  not  continue.  It 
was  too  good;  it  could  not  last."  And  some  say: 
"  It  was  necessary  that  I  should  fall  to  keep  me  hum- 
ble." And  others  say:  "I  know  it  was  my  own 
fault;  but  somehow  you  cannot  always  live  up  in  the 
heights." 

Oh  beloved,  why  is  it?     Can  there  be  any  reason 


KEPT  BY  THE  POWER  OF  GOD  101 

why  the  keeping  of  God  should  not  be  continuous 
and  unbroken?  Just  think.  All  life  is  in  unbroken 
continuity.  If  my  life  were  stopped  for  half  an  hour 
I  would  be  dead,  and  my  life  gone.  Life  is  a  contin- 
uous thing,  and  the  life  of  God  is  the  life  of  His 
Church,  and  the  life  of  God  is  His  almighty  power 
working  in  us.  And  God  comes  to  us  as  the  Al- 
mighty One,  and  without  any  condition  He  offers  to 
be  my  Keeper,  and  His  keeping  means  that  day  by 
day,  moment  by  moment,  God  is  going  to  keep  us. 

If  I  were  to  ask  you  the  question:  "  Do  you  think 
God  is  able  to  keep  you  one  day  from  actual  trans- 
gression?" you  would  answer:  "I  not  only  know  He 
is  able  to  do  it,  but  I  think  He  has  done  it.  There 
have  been  days  in  which  He  has  kept  my  heart  in 
His  holy  presence,  when,  though  I  have  always  had  a 
sinful  nature  within  me.  He  has  kept  me  from  con- 
scious, actual  transgression." 

Now,  if  He  can  do  that  for  an  hour  or  a  day,  why 
not  for  two  days?  Oh!  let  us  make  God's  omnipo- 
tence as  revealed  in  His  word  the  measure  of  our  ex- 
pectations. Has  God  not  said  in  His  Word:  *'  I,  the 
Lord,  do  keep  it,  and  will  water  it  every  moment"? 
What  can  that  mean?  Does  "  every  moment  "  mean 
every  moment?  Did  God  promise  of  that  vineyard 
of  red  wine  that  every  moment  He  would  water  it  so 
that  the  heat  of  the  sun  and  the  scorching  wind 
might  never  dry  it  up?  Yes.  In  South  Africa  they 
sometimes  make  a  graft,  and  above  it  they  tie  a  bot- 
tle of  water,  so  that  now  and  then  there  shall  be  a 
drop  to  saturate  what  they  have  put  about  it.  And  so 
the  moisture  is  kept  there  unceasingly  until  the  graft 
has  had  time  to  strike,  and  resist  the  heat  of  the  sun. 


102  KEPT  BY  THE  POWER  OF  GOD 

Will  our  God,  in  His  tender-hearted  love  towards 
us,  not  keep  us  every  moment  when  He  has  promised 
to  do  so?  Oh!  if  we  once  got  hold  of  the  thought: 
Our  whole  religious  life  is  to  be  Grod's  doing — "  It  is 
God  that  worketh  in  us  to  will  and  to  do  of  His 
good  pleasure  " — when  once  we  get  faith  to  expect 
that  from  God,  God  wdll  do  all  for  us. 

The  keeping  is  to  be  continuous.  Every  morning 
God  will  meet  you  as  you  wake.  It  is  not  a  question: 
If  I  forgot  to  wake  in  the  morning  with  the  thought 
of  Him,  wdiat  will  come  of  it?  If  you  trust  your 
w^aking  to  God,  God  will  meet  you  in  the  morning  as 
you  w^ake  with  His  divine  sunshine  and  love,  and  He 
will  give  you  the  consciousness  that  through  the  day 
you  have  got  God  to  take  charge  of  you  continuously 
with  His  almighty  power.  And  God  will  meet  you 
the  next  day  and  every  day;  and  never  mind  if  in  the 
practice  of  fellowship  there  comes  failure  sometimes. 
If  you  maintain  your  position  and  say:  "  Lord,  I  am 
going  to  expect  Thee  to  do  Thy  utmost,  and  I  am 
going  to  trust  Thee  day  by  day  to  keep  me  absolute- 
ly," your  faith  will  grow  stronger  and  stronger,  and 
you  will  know  the  keeping  power  of  God  in  unbro- 
kenness. 

II. 

And  now  the  other  side — Believing.  "Kept  by 
the  power  of  God  through  faith. ''^  How  must  we  look 
at  this  faith? 

Let  me  say,  first  of  all,  that  this  faith  means 

UTTER  IMPOTENCE  AND  HELPLESSNESS  BEFORE  GOD. 

At  the  bottom  of  all  faith  there  is  a  feeling  of  help- 


KEPT  BY  THE  POWER  OF  GOD  103 

lessness.  If  I  have  a  bit  of  business  to  transact,  per- 
haps to  buy  a  house,  the  conveyancer  must  do  the 
work  of  getting  the  transfer  of  the  property  in  my 
name,  and  making  all  the  arrangements.  I  cannot 
do  that  work,  and  in  trusting  that  agent  I  confess  I 
cannot  do  it.  And  so  faith  always  means  helplessness. 
In  many  cases  it  means :  I  can  do  it  with  a  great  deal 
of  trouble,  but  another  can  do  it  better.  But  in  most 
cases  it  is  utter  helplessness;  another  must  do  it  for 
me.  And  that  is  the  secret  of  the  spiritual  life.  A 
man  must  learn  to  say:  "I  give  up  everything;  I 
have  tried  and  longed,  and  thought  and  prayed,  but 
failure  has  come.  God  has  blessed  me  and  helped 
me,  but  still,  in  the  long  run,  there  has  been  so  much 
of  sin  and  sadness."  What  a  change  comes  when  a 
man  is  thus  broken  down  into  utter  helplessness  and 
self=despair,  and  says:  "  I  can  do  nothing!" 

Remember  Paul.  He  was  living  a  blessed  life,  and 
he  had  been  taken  up  into  the  third  heaven,  and  then 
the  thorn  in  the  flesh  came,  "  a  messenger  of  Satan  to 
buffet  him."  And  what  happened?  Paul  could  not 
understand  it,  and  he  prayed  the  Lord  three  times  to 
take  it  away;  but  the  Lord  said,  in  effect: 

"No;  it  is  possible  thou  mightest  exalt  thyself,  and 
therefore  I  have  sent  thee  this  trial  to  keep  thee  weak 
and  humble." 

And  Paul  then  learned  a  lesson  that  he  never  for- 
got, and  that  was — to  rejoice  in  his  infirmities.  He 
said  that  the  weaker  he  was  the  better  it  was  for  him, 
for  w^hen  he  was  weak  he  was  strong  in  his  Lord 
Christ. 

Do  you  want  to  enter  what  people  call  "  the  higher 
life  "?    Then  go  a  step  lower  down.     I  remember  Dr. 


lOi  KEPT  BY  THE  POWER  OF  GOD 

Boardman  telling  how  that  once  he  was  invited  by  a 
gentleman  to  go  and  see  some  works  where  they 
made  fine  shot,  and  I  believe  the  workmen  did  .'.o  by 
pouring  down  molten  lead  from  a  great  height.  This 
gentlemam  wanted  to  take  Dr.  Boardman  up  to  the 
top  of  the  tower  to  see  how  the  work  was  done.  The 
doctor  came  to  the,  tower,  he  entered  by  the  door,  and 
began  going  upstairs;  but  when  he  had  gone  a  few 
steps  the  gentleman  called  out: 

"  That  is  the  wrong  way.  You  must  come  down 
this  way;  that  stair  is  locked  up." 

The  gentleman  took  him  downstairs  a  good  many 
steps,  and  there  an  elevator  was  ready  to  take  him  to 
the  top;  and  he  said: 

"  I  have  learned  a  lesson  that  going  down  is  often 
the  best  way  to  get  up." 

Ah  yes,  God  will  have  to  bring  us  very  low  down; 
there  will  have  to  come  upon  us  a  sense  of  emptiness 
and  despair  and  nothingness.  It  is  when  we  sink 
down  in  utter  helplessness  that  the  everlasting  God 
will  reveal  Himself  in  His  power,  and  that  our  hearts 
will  learn  to  trust  God  alone. 

What  is  it  that  keeps  us  from  trusting  Him  per- 
fectly? 

Many  a  one  says:  "I  believe  what  you  say,  but 
there  is  one  difficulty.  If  my  trust  were  perfect  and 
always  abiding,  all  would  come  right,  for  I  know  God 
will  honor  trust.     But  how  am  I  to  get  that  trust?  " 

My  answer  is:  ''By  the  death  of  self.  The  great 
hindrance  to  trust  is  self=effort.  So  long  as  you  have 
got  your  own  wisdom  and  thoughts  and  strength, 
you  cannot  fully  trust  God.  But  when  God  breaks 
you  down,  when  everything  begins  to  grow  dim  be- 


KEPT  BY  THE  POWER  OF  GOD  105 

fore  your  eyes,  and  you  see  that  you  understand 
nothing,  then  God  is  coming  nigh,  and  if  you  will 
bow  'down  in  nothingness  and  wait  upon  God,  He 
will  become  all." 

As  long  as  we  are  something,  God  cannot  be  all, 
and  His  omnipotence  cannot  do  its  full  work,  That 
is  the  beginning  of  faith — utter  despair  of  self,  a 
ceasing  from  man  and  everything  on  earth,  and  find- 
ing our  hope  in  God  alone. 

And  then,  next,  we  must  understand  that  faith  is 

REST. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  faith-life,  faith  is  strug- 
gling; but  as  long  as  faith  is  struggling,  faith  has 
not  attained  its  strength.  But  when  faith  in  its 
struggling  gets  to  the  end  of  itself,  and  just  throws 
itself  upon  God  and  rests  on  Him,  then  comes  joy 
and  victory. 

Perhaps  I  can  make  it  plainer  if  I  tell  the  story 
of  how  the  Keswick  Convention  began.  Canon  Bat- 
tersby  was  an  evangelical  clergyman  of  the  Church  of 
England  for  more  than  twenty  years,  a  man  of  deep 
and  tender  godliness,  but  he  had  not  the  conscious- 
ness of  rest  and  victory  over  sin,  and  often  was  deeply 
sad  at  the  thought  of  stumbling  and  failure  and  sin. 
When  he  heard  about  the  possibility  of  victory,  he 
felt  it  was  desirable,  but  it  was  as  if  he  could  not  at- 
tain to  it.  On  one  occasion,  he  heard  an  address  on 
"  Rest  and  Faith,  "  from  the  story  of  the  nobleman 
who  came  from  Capernaum  to  Cana  to  ask  Christ  to 
heal  his  child.  In  the  address  it  was  shown  that  the 
nobleman  believed  that  Christ  could  help  him  in  a 
general  way,  but  he  came  to  Jesus  a  good  deal  by 


106  KEPT  BY  THE  POWER  OF  GOD 

way  of  an  experiment.  He  hoped  Christ  would  help 
him,  but  he  had  not  any  assurance  of  that  help. 
But  what  happened?  When  Christ  said  to  him: 
"  Go  thy  way,  for  thy  child  liveth, "  that  man  be- 
lieved the  word  that  Jesus  spoke;  he  rested  in  that 
word.  He  had  no  proof  that  his  child  was  well 
again,  and  he  had  to  walk  back  seven  hours'  journey 
to  Capernaum.  He  walked  back,  and  on  the  way  met 
his  servant,  and  got  the  first  news  that  the  child  was 
well,  that  at  one  o'clock  on  the  afternoon  of  the  pre- 
vious day,  at  the  very  time  that  Jesus  spoke  to  him, 
the  fever  left  the  child.  That  father  rested  upon  the 
word  of  Jesus  and  His  work,  and  he  went  down  to 
Capernaum  and  found  his  child  well;  and  he  praised 
God,  and  became  with  his  whole  house  a  believer  and 
disciple  of  Jesus. 

Oh,  friends,  that  is  faith!  When  God  comes  to 
me  with  the  promise  of  His  keeping,  and  I  have 
nothing  on  earth  to  trust  in,  I  say  to  God:  "Thy 
word  is  enough;  kept  by  the  power  of  God."  That 
is  faith,  that  is  rest. 

When  Canon  Battersby  heard  that  address,  he 
went  home  that  night,  and  in  the  darkness  of  the 
night  found  rest.  He  rested  on  the  word  of  Jesus. 
And  the  next  morning,  in  the  streets  of  Oxford,  he 
said  to  a  friend:  "  I  have  found  it!  "  Then  he  went 
and  told  others,  and  asked  that  the  Keswick  Conven- 
tion might  be  begun,  and  those  at  the  Convention 
with  himself  should  testify  simply  what  God  had 
done. 

It  is  a  great  thing  when  a  man  comes  to  rest  on 
God's  almighty  power  for  every  moment  of  his  life, 
in  prospect  of  temptations  to  temper  and  haste  and 


KEPT  BY  THE  POWER  OF  GOD  107 

anger  and  unlovingness  and  pride  and  sin.  It  is  a 
great  thing  in  prospect  of  these  to  enter  into  a  cove- 
nant with  the  omnipotent  Jehovah,  not  on  account  of 
anything  that  any  man  says,  or  of  anything  that  my 
heart  feels,  but  on  the  strength  of  the  Word  of  God: 
"  Kept  by  the  povrer  of  God  through  faith. " 

Oh,  let  us  say  to  God  that  we  are  going  to  prove 
Him  to  the  very  uttermost.  Let  us  say:  We  ask 
Thee  for  nothing  more  than  Thou  canst  give,  but  we 
want  nothing  less.  Let  us  say:  My  God,  let  my 
life  be  a  proof  of  what  the  omnipotent  God  can  do, 
Let  these  be  the  two  dispositions  of  our  souls  every 
day — deep  helplessness,  and  simple,  childlike  rest. 

That  brings  me  to  just  one  more  thought  in  regard 
to  faith — faith  implies 

FELLOWSHIP  WITH  GOD. 

Many  people  want  to  take  the  Word  and  believe 
that,  and  they  find  they  cannot  believe  it.  Ah  no! 
you  cannot  separate  God  from  His  Word.  No  good- 
ness or  power  can  be  received  separate  from  God,  and 
if  you  want  to  get  into  this  life  of  godliness  you  must 
take  time  for  fellowship  with  God. 

People  sometimes  tell  me:  "My  life  is  one  of 
such  scurry  and  bustle  that  I  have  no  time  for  fellow- 
ship with  God."  A  dear  missionary  said  to  me: 
"People  do  not  know  how  we  missionaries  are 
tempted.  I  get  up  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
and  there  are  the  natives  waiting  for  their  orders  for 
work.  Then  I  have  to  go  to  the  school  and  spend 
hours  there;  and  then  there  is  other  work,  and  six- 
teen hours  rush  along,  and  I  hardly  get  time  to  be 
alone  with  God." 


108  KEPT  BY  THE  POWER  OF  GOD 

Ah!  there  is  the  want.  I  pray  you,  remem- 
ber two  things.  I  have  not  told  you  to  trust  the  om- 
nipotence of  God  as  a  thing,  and  I  have  not  told  you 
to  trust  the  Word  of  God  as  a  w^ritten  book,  but  I 
have  told  you  to  go  to  the  God  of  omnipotence  and 
the  God  of  the  Word.  Deal  with  God  as  that  noble- 
man dealt  with  the  living  Christ.  Why  was  he  able 
to  believe  the  word  that  Christ  spoke  to  him  ?  Because 
in  the  very  eyes  and  tones  and  voice  of  Jesus,  the  Son 
of  God,  he  saw  and  heard  something  which  made 
him  feel  that  he  could  trust  Him.  And  that  is  what 
Christ  can  do  for  you  and  me.  Do  not  try  to  stir 
and  arouse  faith  from  within.  How  often  I  have 
tried  to  do  that,  and  made  a  fool  of  myself!  You 
cannot  stir  up  faith  from  the  depths  of  your  heart. 
Leave  your  heart,  and  look  into  the  face  of  Christ, 
and  listen  to  what  He  tells  you  about  how  He  will 
keep  you.  Look  up  into  the  face  of  your  loving 
Father,  and  take  time  every  day  with  Him,  and  begin 
a  new  life  with  the  deep  emptiness  and  poverty  of  a 
man  who  has  got  nothing,  and  who  wants  to  get  every- 
thing from  Him;  with  the  deep  restfulness  of  a  man 
who  rests  on  the  living  God,  the  omnipotent  Jehovah ; 
and  try  God,  and  prove  Him  if  He  will  not  open  the 
windows  of  heaven  and  pour  out  a  blessing  that  there 
shall  not  be  room  to  receive  it. 

I  close  by  asking  if  you  are  willing  to  experience 
to  the  very  full  the  heavenly  keeping  for  the  heaven- 
ly inheritance?  Kobert  Murray  M'Cheyne  says, 
somewhere:  "  Oh,  God,  make  me  as  holy  as  a  par- 
doned sinner  can  be  made."  And  if  that  prayer  is  in 
your  heart,  come  now,  and  let  us  enter  into  a  covenant 
with  the  everlasting  and  omnipotent  Jehovah  afresh, 


KEPT  BY  THE  POWER  OF  GOD  109 

and  in  great  helplessness,  but  in  great  restfulness, 
place  ourselves  in  His  hands.  And  then  as  we  enter 
into  our  covenant,  let  us  have  the  one  prayer — that 
we  may  believe  fully  that  the  everlasting  God  is 
going  to  be  our  Companion,  holding  our  hand  every 
moment  of  the  day;  our  Keeper,  watching  over  us 
without  a  moment's  interval;  our  Father,  delighting 
to  reveal  Himself  in  our  souls  always.  He  has  the 
power  to  let  the  sunshine  of  His  love  be  with  us  all 
the  day.  Do  not  be  afraid  because  you  have  got 
your  business  that  you  cannot  have  God  with  you 
always.  Learn  the  lesson  that  the  natural  sun  shines 
upon  you  all  the  day,  and  you  enjoy  its  light,  and 
wherever  you  are  you  have  got  the  sun;  God  takes 
care  that  it  shines  upon  you.  And  God  will  take 
care  that  His  own  divine  light  shines  upon  you, 
and  that  you  shall  abide  in  that  light,  if  you  will 
only  trust  Him  for  it.  Let  us  trust  God  to  do  that 
with  a  great  and  entire  trust. 

Here  is  the  omnipotence  of  God,  and  here  is  faith 
reaching  out  to  the  measure  of  that  omnipotence. 
Shall  we  not  say:  "  All  that  that  omnipotence  can  do, 
I  am  going  to  trust  my  God  for  "  ?  Are  not  the  two 
sides  of  this  heavenly  life  wonderful?  God's  omnip- 
otence covering  me,  and  my  will  in  its  littleness 
resting  in  that  omnipotence,  and  rejoicing  in  it! 

Moment  by  moment,  I'm  kept  in  His  love; 
Moment  by  moment,  I've  life  from  above; 
Looking  to  Jesus,  the  glory  doth  shine; 
Moment  by  moment.  Oh  Lord,  I  am  Thine! 


"YE  ARE  THE  BRANCHES." 

AN  ADDRESS  TO  CHRISTIAN  WORKERS. 

Everything  depends  on  our  being  right  ourselves 
in  Christ.  If  I  want  good  apples,  I  must  have  a 
good  apple=tree;  and  if  I  care  for  the  health  of  the 
appleHree,  the  apj)le^tree  will  give  me  good  apples. 
And  it  is  just  so  with  our  Christian  life  and  work. 
If  our  life  ivUh  Christ  he  right,  all  will  come  right. 
There  may  be  the  need  of  instruction  and  suggestion 
and  help  and  training  in  the  different  departments 
of  the  work;  all  that  has  its  value.  But  in  the  long 
run,  the  greatest  essential  is  to  have  the  full  life  in 
Christ;  in  other  words,  to  have  Christ  in  us,  working 
through  us.  I  know  how  much  there  is  often  to 
disturb  us,  or  to  cause  anxious  questionings;  but  the 
Master  has  such  a  blessing  for  every  one  of  us,  and 
such  perfect  peace  and  rest,  and  such  joy  and  strength, 
if  we  can  only  come  into,  and  be  kept  in,  the  right 
attitude  towards  Him. 

I  will  take  my  text  from  the  parable  of  the  Vine 
and  the  Branches,  in  John  xv:  5:  ''I  am  the  vine,  ye 
are  the  branches."  Especially  these  words:  "Ye  are 
the  branches." 

What  a  simple  thing  it  is  to  be  a  branch,  the 
branch  of  a  tree,  or  the  branch  of  a  vine!  The 
branch  grows  out  of  the  vine,  or  out  of  the  tree,  and 
there  it  lives  and  grows,  and  in  due  time,  bears  fruit. 
It  has  no  responsibility  except  just  to  receive  from 

110 


"  YE  ARE  THE  BRANCHES''  111 

the  root  and  stem  sap  and  nourishment.  And  if  we 
only  by  the  Holy  Spirit  knew  our  relationship  to 
Jesus  Christ,  our  work  would  be  changed  into  the 
brightest  and  most  heavenly  thing  upon  earth.  In- 
stead of  there  ever  being  soul^weariness  or  exhaustion, 
our  work  would  be  like  a  new  experience,  linking  us 
to  Jesus  as  nothing  else  can.  For,  alas!  is  it  not 
often  true  that  our  work  comes  between  us  and 
Jesus?  What  folly!  The  very  work  that  He  has  to 
do  in  me,  and  I  for  Him,  I  take  up  in  such  a  way 
that  it  separates  me  from  Christ.  Many  a  laborer  in 
the  vineyard  has  complained  that  he  has  too  much 
work,  and  not  time  for  close  communion  with  Jesus, 
and  that  his  usual  work  weakens  his  inclination  for 
prayer,  and  that  his  too  much  intercourse  with  men 
darkens  the  spiritual  life.  Sad  thought,  that  the 
bearing  of  fruit  should  separate  the  branch  from  the 
vine!  That  must  be  because  we  have  looked  upon 
our  work  as  something  else  than  the  branch  bearing- 
fruit.  May  God  deliver  us  from  every  false  thought 
about  the  Christian  life. 

Now,   just   a   few   thoughts    about    this   blessed 

BKANCH^LIFE. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is 

A  LIFE  OF  ABSOLUTE  DEPENDENCE. 

The  branch  has  nothing;  it  just  depends  upon  the 
vine  for  everything.  That  word  ahsolnte  dependence 
is  one  of  the  most  solemn  and  large  and  precious  of 
words.  A  great  German  theologian  wrote  two  large 
volumes  some  years  ago  to  show  that  the  whole  of 
Calvin's  theology  is  summed  up  in  that  one  principle 
of  ahsolnte  dependence  upon  God;  and  he  was  right. 


112  "  YE  ARE  THE  BRANCHES'' 

Another  great  writer  has  said  that  absolide,  unalter- 
able dependence  upon  God  alone  is  the  essence  of 
the  religion  of  angels,  and  should  be  that  of  men  also. 
God  is  everything  to  the  angels,  and  He  is  willing  to 
be  everything  to  the  Christian.  If  I  can  learn  every 
moment  of  the  day  to  depend  upon  God,  everything 
will  come  right.  You  w^ill  get  the  higher  life  if  you 
depend  absolutely  upon  God. 

Now,  here  we  find  it  with  the  vine  and  the 
branches.  Every  vine  you  ever  see,  or  every  bunch 
of  grapes  that  comes  upon  your  table,  let  it  remind 
you  that  the  branch  is  absolutely  dependent  on  the 
vine.  The  vine  has  to  do  the  work,  and  the  branch 
enjoys  the  fruit  of  it. 

What  has  the  vine  to  do?  It  has  to  do  a  great 
work.  It  has  to  send  its  roots  out  into  the  soil  and 
hunt  under  the  ground — the  roots  often  extend  a 
long  way  out — for  nourishment,  and  to  drink  in  the 
moisture.  Put  certain  elements  of  manure  in  certain 
directions,  and  the  vine  sends  its  roots  there,  and 
then  in  its  roots  or  stems  it  turns  the  moisture  and 
manure  into  that  special  sap  which  is  to  make  the 
fruit  that  is  borne.  The  vine  does  the  work,  and  the 
branch  has  just  to  receive  from  the  vine  the  sap, 
which  is  changed  into  grapes.  I  have  been  told  that 
at  Hamilton  Court,  London,  there  is  a  vine  that  some- 
times bore  a  couple  of  thousand  bunches  of  grapes, 
and  people  were  astonished  at  its  large  growth  and 
rich  fruitage.  Afterwards  it  was  discovered  what 
was  the  cause  of  it.  Not  so  very  far  away  runs  the 
Eiver  Thames,  and  the  vine  had  stretched  its  roots 
away  hundreds  of  yards  under  the  ground,  until  it 
had  come  to  the  river^side,  and  there  in  all  the  rich 


"  YE  ARE  THE  BRANCHES''  113 

slime  of  the  river=bed  it  had  found  rich  nourishment, 
and  obtained  moisture,  and  the  roots  had  drawn  the 
sap  all  that  distance  up  and  up  into  the  vine,  and  as 
a  result  there  was  the  abundant  and  rich  harvest. 
The  vine  had  the  work  to  do,  and  the  branches  had 
just  to  depend  upon  the  vine,  and  receive  what  it 
gave. 

Is  that  literally  true  of  my  Lord  Jesus?  Must 
I  understand  that  when  I  have  to  work,  when  I 
have  to  preach  a  sermon,  or  address  a  Bible  class,  or 
to  go  out  and  visit  the  i^oor  neglected  ones,  that  all 
the  responsibility  of  the  work  is  on  Christ? 

That  is  exactly  what  Christ  wants  you  to  under- 
stand. Christ  wants  that  in  all  your  work,  the  very 
foundation  should  be  the  simple,  blessed  conscious- 
ness: Christ  must  care  for  all. 

And  how  docs  He  fulfil  the  trust  of  that  depend- 
ence? He  does  it  by  sending  down  the  Holy  Spirit 
- — not  now  and  then  only  as  a  special  gift,  for  remem- 
ber the  relation  between  the  vine  and  the  branches 
is  such  that  hourly,  daily,  unceasingly  there  is  the 
living  connection  maintained.  The  saj^  does  not  flow 
for  a  time,  and  then  stop,  and  then  flow  again,  but 
from  moment  to  moment  the  sap  flows  from  the  vine 
to  the  branches.  And  just  so,  my  Lord  Jesus  wants 
me  to  take  that  blessed  position  as  a  worker,  and 
morning  by  morning  and  day  by  day  and  hour  by 
hour  and  step  by  step,  in  every  work  I  have  to  go  out 
to,  just  to  abide  before  Him  in  the  simple  utter  help- 
lessness of  one  who  knows  nothing,  and  is  nothing, 
and  can  do  nothing.  Oh,  beloved  workers,  study  that 
word  nothing.  You  sometimes  sing:  ''  Oh  to  be  noth- 
ing, nothing";  but  have  you  really  studied  that  word, 


114  "YE  ARE  THE  BRANCHES » 

and  prayed  every  day,  and  worshiped  God,  in  the 
light  of  it?  Do  you  know  the  blessedness  of  that 
word  nothing 9 

If  I  am  something,  then  God  is  not  everything; 
but  when  I  become  nothing,  God  can  become  all,  and 
the  everlasting  God  in  Christ  can  reveal  Himself 
fully.  That  is  the  higher  life.  We  need  to  become 
nothing.  Someone  has  well  said  that  the  seraphim 
and  cherubim  are  flames  of  fire  because  they  know 
they  are  nothing,  and  they  allow  God  to  put  His 
fulness  and  His  glory  and  brightness  into  them. 
They  are  nothing,  and  God  is  all  in  them  and  around 
them.  Oh,  become  nothing  in  deep  reality,  and,  as 
a  worker,  study  only  one  thing — to  become  poorer 
and  lower  and  more  helpless,  that  Christ  may  work 
all  in  you. 

Workers,  here  is  your  first  lesson :  learn  to  be  noth- 
ing, learn  to  be  helpless.  The  man  who  has  got 
something  is  not  absolutely  dependent;  but  the  man 
who  has  got  nothing  is  absolutely  dependent.  Abso- 
lute dependence  upon  God  is  the  secret  of  all  power 
in  work.  The  branch  has  nothing  but  what  it  gets 
from  the  vine,  and  you  and  I  can  have  nothing  but 
what  we  get  from  Jesus. 

But  secondly,  the  life  of  the  branch  is  not  only  a 
life  of  entire  dependence,  but  of 

DEEP   EESTFULNESS. 

Oh  that  little  branch,  if  it  could  think,  and  if  it 
could  feel,  and  if  it  could  speak — that  branch  away 
in  Hampton  Court  vine,  or  on  some  of  the  million 
vines  that  we  have  in  South  Africa,  in  our  sunny  land 
— if  we  could  have  a  little  branch  here  to-day  to  talk 


"  YE  ARE  THE  BRANCHES''  115 

to  US,  and  if  v/e  could  say:  "Come,  branch  of  the 
vine,  I  want  to  learn  from  thee  how  I  can  l3e  a  true 
branch  of  the  living  Vine,"  w4iat  would  it  answer? 
The  little  branch  would  whisper: 

"  Man,  I  hear  that  you  are  wise,  and  I  know  that 
you  can  do  a  great  many  wonderful  things.  I  know 
you  have  much  strength  and  wisdom  given  to  you, 
but  I  have  one  lesson  for  you.  With  all  your  hurry 
and  effort  in  Christ's  work  you  never  prosper.  The 
first  thing  you  need  is  to  come  and  rest  in  your  Lord 
Jesus.  That  is  what  I  do.  Since  I  grew  out  of  that 
vine  I  have  spent  years  and  years,  and  all  I  have 
done  is  just  to  rest  in  the  vine.  When  the  time  of 
spring  came  I  had  no  anxious  thought  or  care.  The 
vine  began  to  pour  its  sap  into  me,  and  to  give  the 
bud  and  leaf.  And  when  the  time  of  summer  came 
I  had  no  care,  and  in  the  great  heat  I  trusted  the 
vine  to  bring  moisture  to  keep  me  fresh.  And  in  the 
time  of  harvest,  when  the  owner  came  to  pluck  the 
grapes,  I  had  no  care.  If  there  was  anything  in  the 
grapes  not  good,  the  owner  never  blamed  the  branch; 
the  blame  was  always  on  the  vine.  And  if  you  would 
be  a  true  branch  of  Christ,  the  living  Vine,  just  rest 
on  Him.  Let  Christ  bear  the  responsibility." 
You  say:  "  Won't  that  make  me  slothful?  " 
I  tell  you  it  will  not.  No  one  who  learns  to  rest  up- 
on the  living  Christ  can  become  slothful,  for  the  clos- 
er your  contact  with  Christ  the  more  of  the  Spirit  of 
His  zeal  and  love  will  be  borne  in  upon  you.  But  oh, 
begin  to  w^ork  in  the  midst  of  your  entire  dependence 
by  adding  to  that  dec}}  restfulness.  A  man,  some- 
times tries  and  tries  to  be  dependent  upon  Christ, 
but  he  worries  himself  about  this   absolute  depend- 


116  "  YE  ARE  THE  BRANCHES'' 

ence;  he  tries   and  he   cannot  get   it.     But  let  him 
sink  down  into  entire  restfulness  every  day. 

In  Thy  strong  hand  I  lay  me  down. 

So  shall  the  work  be  done; 
For  who  can  work  so  wondrously 

As  the  Almighty  One? 

Worker,  take  your  place  every  day  at  the  feet  of 
Jesus,  in  the  blessed  peace  and  rest  that  come  from 
the  knowledge — 

I  have  no  care,  my  cares  are  His; 

I  have  no  fear,  He  cares  for  all  my  fears. 

Come,  children  of  God,  and  understand  that  it  is 
the  Lord  Jesus  who  wants  to  work  through  you.  You 
complain  of  the  want  of  fervent  love.  It  will  come 
from  Jesus.  He  will  give  the  divine  love  in  your 
heart  with  which  you  can  love  people.  That  is  the 
meaning  of  the  assurance:  "The  love  of  God  is  shed 
abroad  in  our  hearts  by  the  Holy  Spirit";  and  of 
that  other  word:  "The  love  of  Christ  constraineth 
us."  Christ  can  give  you  a  fountain  of  love,  so  that 
you  cannot  help  loving  the  most  wretched  and  the 
most  ungrateful,  or  those  who  have  wearied  you  hith- 
erto. Rest  in  Christ,  who  can  give  wisdom  and 
strength,  and  you  do  not  know  how  that  restfulness 
will  often  prove  to  be  the  very  best  part  of  your  mes- 
sage. You  plead  with  people  and  you  argue,  and 
they  get  the  idea:  "There  is  a  man  arguing  and 
striving  with  me."  They  only  feel:  "Here  are  two 
men  dealing  with  each  other."  But  it  you  will  let 
the  deep  rest  of  God  come  over  you,  the  rest  in  Christ 
Jesus,  the  peace  and  rest  and  holiness  of  heaven,  that 
restfulness  will  bring  a  blessing  to  the  heart,  even 
more  than  the  words  you  speak. 


"  YE  ARE  THE  BRANCHES''  117 

But  a  third  thought:     The  branch   teaches   a   les- 
son of 

MUCH   FRUITFULNESS. 

You  know  the  Lord  Jesus  repeated  that  word  fruit 
often  in  that  parable.  He  spoke,  first,  of  fruit,  and 
then  of  more  fruit,  and  then  of  much  fruit.  Yes, 
you  are  ordained  not  only  to  bear  fruit,  but  to  bear 
much  fruit.  "  Herein  is  my  Father  glorified,  thcd  ye 
hear  much  fruit.''''  In  the  first  place,  Christ  said:  "I 
am  the  Vine,  and  my  Father  is  the  Husbandman. 
My  Father  is  the  Husbandman  who  has  charge  of  me 
and  you,"  He  who  will  watch  over  the  connection 
between  Christ  and  the  branches  is  God;  and  it  is  in 
the  power  of  God  through  Christ  we  are  to  bear  fruit. 
Oh  Christians,  you  know  this  world  is  perishing  for 
the  want  of  workers.  And  it  wants  not  only  more 
workers.  The  workers  are  saying,  some  more  earn- 
estly than  others:  "  We  need  not  only  more  workers, 
but  we  need  that  our  workers  should  have  a  new 
power,  a  different  life;  that  we  workers  should  be 
able  to  bring  more  blessing."  Children  of  God,  I 
appeal  to  you.  You  know  what  trouble  you  take,  say, 
in  a  case  of  sickness.  You  have  a  beloved  friend 
apparently  in  danger  of  death,  and  nothing  can  re- 
fresh that  friend  so  much  as  a  few  grapes,  and  they 
are  out  of  season;  but  what  trouble  you  will  take  to 
get  the  grapes  that  are  to  be  the  nourishment  of  this 
dying  friend!  And  oh,  there  are  around  you  people 
who  never  go  to  church,  and  so  many  who  go  to 
church,  but  do  not  know  Christ.  And  yet  the  heavenly 
grapes,  the  grapes  of  Eshcol,  the  grapes  of  the  heav- 
enly Vine,  are  not  to  be  had  at  any  price,  except  as 


118  "  YE  ARE  THE  BRANCHES  " 

the  child  of  God  bears  them  out  of  his  inner  life  in 
fellowship  with  Christ.  Except  the  children  of  God 
are  filled  with  the  sap  of  the  heavenly  Vine,  except 
they  are  filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit  and  the  love  of 
Jesus,  they  cannot  bear  much  of  the  real  heavenly 
grape.  We  all  confess  there  is  a  great  deal  of  work, 
a  great  deal  of  preaching  and  teaching  and  visiting,  a 
great  deal  of  machinery,  a  great  deal  of  earnest  ef- 
fort of  every  kind;  but  there  is  not  much  manifesta- 
tion of  the  power  of  God  in  it. 

What  is  wanting?  There  is  wanting  the  close  con- 
nection between  the  worker  and  the  heavenly  Vine. 
Christ,  the  heavenly  Vine,  has  blessings  that  He 
could  pour  on  tens  of  thousands  who  are  perishing. 
Christ,  the  heavenly  Vine,  has  power  to  provide  the 
heavenly  grapes.  But  "  Ye  are  the  branches,"  and 
you  cannot  bear  heavenly  fruit  unless  you  are  in  close 
connection  with  Jesus  Christ. 

Do  not  confound  loork  and  fruit .  There  may  be  a 
good  deal  of  work  for  Christ  that  is  not  the  fruit  of 
the  heavenly  Vine,  Do  not  seek  for  work  only. 
Oh!  study  this  question  of  fruit=bearing.  It  means 
tlie  very  life  and  the  very  power  and  the  very  spirit 
and  the  very  love  within  the  heart  of  the  Son  of  God 
— it  means  the  heavenly  Vine  Himself  coming  into 
your  heart  and  mine. 

You  know  there  are  different  sorts  of  grapes,  each 
with  a  different  name,  and  every  vine  provides  exact- 
ly that  peculiar  aroma  and  juice  which  gives  the 
grape  its  particular  flavor  and  taste.  Just  so,  there  is 
in  the  heart  of  Christ  Jesus  a  life,  and  a  love,  and  a 
Spirit,  and  a  blessing,  and  a  power  for  men,  that  are 


"  YE  ARE  THE  BFANCHES''  119 

entirely  heavenly  and  divine,  and  that  will  come 
down  into  our  hearts.  Stand  in  close  connection 
with  the  heavenly  Vine  and  say: 

"  Lord  Jesus,  nothing  less  than  the  sap  that  flows 
through  Thyself,  nothing  less  than  the  Spirit  of  Thy 
divine  life  is  what  we  ask.  Lord  Jesus,  I  pray  Thee 
let  Thy  Spirit  flow  through  me  in  all  my  work  for 
Thee." 

I  tell  you  again  that  the  sap  of  the  heavenly  Vine 
is  nothing  but  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  Holy  Spirit  is 
the  life  of  the  heavenly  Vine,  and  what  you  must  get 
from  Christ  is  nothing  less  than  a  strong  inflow  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  You  need  it  exceedingly,  and  you 
want  nothing  more  than  that.  Remember  that.  Do 
not  expect  Christ  to  give  a  bit  of  strength  here,  and 
a  bit  of  blessing  yonder,  and  a  bit  of  help  over  there. 
As  the  vine  does  its  work  in  giving  its  own  peculiar 
sap  to  the  branch,  so  expect  Christ  to  give  His  own 
Holy  Spirit  into  your  heart,  and  then  you  will  bear 
much  fruit.  And  if  you  have  only  begun  to  bear 
fruit,  and  are  listening  to  the  word  of  Christ  in  the 
parable,  ''  more  fruit,"  "  much  fruit,"  remember  that 
in  order  that  you  should  bear  more  fruit  you  just  re- 
quire more  of  Jesus  in  your  life  and  heart. 

We  ministers  of  the  gospel,  how  we  are  in  danger 
of  getting  into  a  condition  of  icorl^,  tvoj^k,  ivork!  And 
we  pray  over  it,  but  the  freshness  and  buoyancy  and 
joy  of  the  heavenly  life  are  not  always  present.  Let 
us  seek  to  understand  that  the  life  of  the  branch  is  a 
life  of  much  fruit,  because  it  is  a  life  rooted  in 
Christ,  the  living,  heavenly  Vine. 

A  fourth  thought:     The  life  of  the  branch  is 


120  "  YE  ARE  THE  BRANCHES'' 


A   LIFE   OF   CLOSE  COMMUNION. 

Let  US  again  ask:  What  has  the  branch  to  do? 
You  know  that  precious  inexhaustible  word  that 
Christ  used:  Abide.  Your  life  is  to  be  an  abiding 
life.  And  how  is  the  abiding  to  be?  It  is  to  be  just 
like  the  branch  in  the  vine,  abiding  every  minute  of 
the  day.  There  are  the  branches,  in  close  commun- 
ion, in  unbroken  communion,  with  the  vine,  from 
January  to  December.  And  cannot  I  live  every  day 
— it  is  to  me  an  almost  terrible  thing  that  we  should 
ask  the  question — cannot  I  live  in  abiding  commun- 
ion with  the  heavenly  Vine? 

You  say:  "  But  I  am  so  much  occupied  with  other 
things  " 

You  may  have  ten  hours'  hard  work  daily,  during 
which  your  brain  has  to  be  occupied  with  temporal 
things;  God  orders  it  so.  But  the  abiding  work  is 
the  work  of  the  heart,  not  of  the  brain,  the  work  of 
the  heart  clinging  to  and  resting  in  Jesus,  a  work  in 
which  the  Holy  Spirit  links  us  to  Christ  Jesus.  Oh, 
do  believe  that  deeper  down  than  the  brain,  deep 
down  in  the  inner  life,  you  can  abide  in  Christ,  so 
that  every  moment  you  are  free  the  consciousness 
will  come: 

"  Blessed  Jesus,  I  am  still  in  Thee." 

If  you  will  learn  for  a  time  to  put  aside  other  work 
and  to  get  into  this  abiding  contact  with  the  heavenly 
Vine,  you  will  find  that  fruit  will  come. 

What  is  the  application  to  our  life  of  this  abiding 
communion?    What  does  it  mean? 

It  means  close  felloicship  tvith  Christ  in  secret 
prayer.    I  am  sure  there  are  Christians  who  do  long 


«  YE  ARE  THE  BRANCHES'''  121 

for  the  higher  life,  and  who  soraetimes  have  got  a 
great  blessing,  and  have  at  times  found  a  great  inflow 
of  heavenly  joy  and  a  great  outflow  of  heavenly  glad- 
ness; and  yet  after  a  time  it  has  passed  away.  They 
have  not  understood  that  close  personal  actual  com- 
munion with  Christ  is  an  absolute  necessity  for  daily 
life.  Take  time  to  be  alone  with  Christ.  Nothing  in 
heaven  or  earth  can  free  you  from  the  necessity  for 
that,  if  you  are  to  be  happy  and  holy  Christians. 

Oh!  how  many  Christians  look  upon  it  as  a  burden 
and  a  tax,  and  a  duty,  and  a  difiiculty  to  get  much 
alone  with  God!  That  is  the  great  hindrance  to  our 
Christian  life  everywhere.  We  want  more  quiet  fel- 
lowship with  God,  and  I  tell  you  in  the  name  of  the 
heavenly  Vine  that  you  cannot  be  healthy  branches, 
branches  into  which  the  heavenly  saj)  can  flow,  unless 
you  take  plenty  of  time  for  communion  with  God.  If 
you  are  not  willing  to  sacrifice  time  to  get  alone  with 
Him,  and  to  give  Him  time  every  day  to  work  in  you, 
and  to  keep  up  the  link  of  connection  between  you 
and  Himself,  He  cannot  give  you  that  blessing  of 
His  unbroken  fellowship.  Jesus  Christ  asks  you  to 
live  in  close  communion  with  Him.  Let  every  heart 
say:  "Oh  Christ,  it  is  this  I  long  for,  it  is  this  I 
choose."     And  He  will  gladly  give  it  you. 

And  then  my  last  thought:  The  life  of  the  branch 
is 

A  LIFE  OF  ABSOLUTE  SUREENDEK. 

This  word,  absolute  surrender,  is  a  great  and 
solemn  word,  and  I  believe  we  do  not  understand  its 
meaning.     But  yet  the  little  branch  preaches  it. 

"  Have  you  anything  to  do,  little  branch,  besides 
bearing  grapes?" 


122  ''YE  ARE  THE  BRANCHES" 

"  No,  nothing.^'' 

"  Are  you  fit  for  nothing?  " 

Fit  for  nothing!  The  Bible  says  that  a  bit  of  vine 
cannot  even  be  used  as  a  pen;  it  is  fit  for  nothing  but 
to  be  burned. 

"  And  now,  what  do  you  understand,  little  branch, 
about  your  relation  to  the  vine?  " 

"My  relation  is  just  this:  I  am  utterly  given  up  to 
the  vine,  and  the  vine  can  give  me  as  much  or  as 
little  sap  as  it  chooses.  Here  I  am  at  its  disposal 
and  the  vine  can  do  with  me  what  it  likes." 

Oh,  friends,  we  want  this  absolute  surrender  to  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  The  more  I  speak  the  more  I 
feel  that  this  is  one  of  the  most  difiicult  points  to 
make  clear,  and  one  of  the  most  important  and  need- 
ful points  to  explain — what  this  absolute  surrender  is. 
It  is  often  an  easy  thing  for  a  man  or  a  number  of 
men  to  come  out  and  offer  themselves  up  to  God  for 
entire  consecration,  and  to  say:  "  Lord,  it  is  my  desire 
to  give  up  myself  entirely  to  Thee."  That  is  of  great 
value,  and  often  brings  very  rich  blessing.  But  the 
one  question  I  ought  to  study  quietly  is: 

WHAT   IS   MEANT    BY   ABSOLUTE   SURRENDER? 

It  means  that  just  as  literally  as  Christ  was  given  up 
entirely  to  God,  I  am  given  up  entirely  to  Christ.  Is 
that  too  strong?  Some  think  so.  Some  think  that 
never  can  be;  that  just  as  entirely  and  absolutely  as 
Christ  gave  up  His  life  to  do  nothing  but  seek  the 
Father's  pleasure,  and  depend  on  the  Father  absolute- 
ly and  entirely,  I  am  to  do  nothing  but  to  seek  the 
pleasure  of  Christ.  But  that  is  actually  true.  Christ 
Jesus  came  to  breathe '  His  own  Spirit  into  us,  to 


"  YE  ARE  THE  BRANCHES''  123 

make  us  find  our  very  highest  happiness  in  living  en- 
tirely for  God,  just  as  He  did.  Oh,  beloved  brethren, 
if  that  is  the  case,  then  I  ought  to  siy: 

"  Yes,  as  true  as  it  is  of  that  little  branch  of  the 
vine,  so  true,  by  God's  grace,  I  would  liave  it  be  of 
me.  I  would  live  day  by  day  Ihat  Christ  may  be 
able  to  do  with  me  what  He  will." 

Ah!  here  comes  the  terrible  mistake  that  lies  at  the 
bottom  of  so  much  of  our  own  religion.  A  man 
thinks : 

"  I  have  my  business  and  family  duties,  and  my 
relations  as  a  citizen,  and  all  this  I  cannot  change. 
And  now  alongside  all  this  I  am  to  take  in  religion 
and  the  service  of  God,  as  something  that  will  keep 
me  from  sin.  God  help  me  to  perform  my  duties 
properly!" 

That  is  not  right.  When  Christ  came,  He  came 
and  bought  the  sinner  with  His  blood.  If  there  was 
a  slavennarket  here  and  I  were  to  buy  a  slave,  I 
should  take  that  slave  away  to  my  own  house  from 
his  old  surroundings,  and  he  would  live  at  my  house 
as  my  personal  property,  and  I  could  order  him  about 
all  the  day.  And  if  he  were  a  faithful  slave,  he  would 
live  as  having  no  will  and  no  interests  of  his  own,  his 
one  care  being  to  promote  the  welhbeing  and  honor 
of  his  master.  And  in  like  manner  I,  who  have  been 
bought  with  the  blood  of  Christ,  have  been  bought  to 
live  every  day  with  the  one  thought — How  can  I 
please  my  Master? 

Oh,  w^e  find  the  Christian  life  so  difiicult  because 
we  seek  for  God's  blessing  while  we  live  in  our  own 
will.  We  should  be  glad  to  live  the  Christian  life 
according  to  our  own  liking.     We  make  our  own 


124  "  YE  ARE  THE  BRANCHES'' 

plans  and  choose  our  own  work,  and  then  we  ask  the 
Lord  Jesus  to  come  in  and  take  care  that  sin  shall 
not  conquer  us  too  much,  and  that  we  shall  not  go  too 
far  wrong;  we  ask  Him  to  come  in  and  give  us  so 
much  of  His  blessing.  But  our  relation  to  Jesus 
ought  to  be  such  that  we  are  entirely  at  His  disposal, 
and  every  day  come  to  Him  humbly  and  straightfor- 
wardly and  say: 

"  Lord,  is  there  anything  in  me  that  is  not  accord- 
ing to  Thy  will,  that  has  not  been  ordered  by  Thee, 
or  that  is  not  entirely  given  up  to  Thee?" 

Oh,  if  we  would  wait  and  wait  patiently,  I  tell  you 
what  the  result  would  be.  There  would  spring  up  a  re- 
lationship between  us  and  Christ  so  close  and  so  tender 
that  we  should  afterwards  be  amazed  at  hov/  we  for- 
merly could  have  lived  with  the  idea:  "I  am  surren- 
dered to  Christ."  We  should  feel  how  far  distant 
our  intercourse  with  Him  had  previously  been,  and 
that  He  can,  and  does  indeed,  come  and  take  actual 
possession  of  us,  and  gives  unbroken  fellowship  all 
the  day.     The  branch  calls  us  to  absolute  surrender. 

I  do  not  speak  now  so  much  about  the  giving  up  of 
sins.  There  are  people  who  need  that,  people  who 
have  got  violent  tempers,  bad  habits,  and  actual  sins 
which  they  from  time  to  time  commit,  and  which 
they  have  never  given  up  into  the  very  bosom  of  the 
Lamb  of  God.  I  pray  you,  if  you  are  branches  of  the 
living  Vine,  do  not  keep  one  sin  back.  I  know  there 
are  a  great  many  difficulties  about  this  question  of 
holiness,  I  know  that  all  do  not  think  exactly  the 
same  with  regard  to  it.  That  would  be  to  me  a  mat- 
ter of  comparative  indifference  if  I  could  see  that  all 
are  honestly  longing  to  be  free  from  every  sin.     But 


♦•  YE  ARE  THE  BRANCHES"  125 

I  am  afraid  that  unconsciously  there  are  in  hearts 
often  compromises  with  the  idea  that  we  cannot  be 
without  sin,  we  must  sin  a  little  every  day;  we  cannot 
help  it.  Oh  that  people  would  actually  cry  to  God: 
"Lord,  do  keep  me  from  sin!"  Give  yourself  ut- 
terly to  Jesus,  and  ask  Him  to  do  His  very  utmost 
for  you  in  keeping  you  from  sin. 

There  is  a  great  deal  in  our  work,  in  our  Church 
and  our  surroundings  that  we  found  in  the  world 
when  we  were  born  into  it,  and  it  has  grown  all  round 
us,  and  we  think  that  it  is  all  right,  it  cannot  be 
changed.  We  do  not  come  to  the  Lord  Jesus  and 
ask  Him  about  it.  Oh!  I  advise  you.  Christians, 
hri7ig  everything  into  relationsJiip  with  Jesus  and 
say: 

"Lord,  everything  in  my  life  has  to  be  in  most 
comiDlete  harmony  with  my  position  as  a  branch  of 
Thee,  the  blessed  Vine." 

Let  your  surrender  to  Christ  be  absolute.  I  do  not 
understand  that  word  surrender  fully;  it  gets  new 
meanings  every  now  and  then;  it  enlarges  immensely 
from  time  to  time.  But  I  advise  you  to  speak  it  out: 
"Absolute  surrender  to  Thee,  O  Christ,  is  what  I 
have  chosen."  And  Christ  will  show  you  what  is  not 
according  to  His  mind,  and  lead  you  on  to  deeper 
and  higher  blessedness. 

In  conclusion,  let  me  gather  up  all  in  one  word. 
Christ  Jesus  said:  "I  am  the  Vine,  ye  are  the 
branches."  Li  other  words:  "I,  the  living  One  who 
have  so  completely  given  myself  to  you,  am  the  Vine. 
You  cannot  trust  me  too  much.  I  am  the  Al- 
mighty Worker,  full  of  a  divine  life  and  power." 
You  are  the  branches  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.    If 


126  *'  YE  ARE  THE  BRANCHES" 

there  is  in  your  heart  the  consciousness  that  you  are 
not  a  strong,  healthy,  fruit-bearing  branch,  not 
closely  linked  with  Jesus,  not  living  in  Him  as 
you  should  be — then  listen  to  Him  saying:  "  I  am 
the  Vine,  I  will  receive  you,  I  will  draw  you  to  my- 
self, I  will  bless  you,  I  will  strengthen  you,  I  will 
fill  you  with  my  Spirit.  I,  the  Vine,  have  taken  you 
to  be  my  branches,  I  have  given  myself  utterly  to 
you;  children,  give  yourselves  utterly  to  me.  I  have 
surrendered  myself  as  God  absolutely  to  you,  I  be- 
came man  and  died  for  you  that  I  might  be  entirely 
yours.  Come  and  surrender  yourselves  entirely  to  be 
mine." 

What  shall  our  answer  be?  Oh,  let  it  be  a  prayer 
from  the  depths  of  our  heart,  that  the  living  Christ 
may  take  each  one  of  us  and  link  us  close  to  Him- 
self. Let  our  prayer  be  that  He,  the  living  Vine, 
shall  so  link  each  of  us  to  Himself  that  we  shall  go 
away  with  our  hearts  singing:  '•  He  is  my  Vine,  and 
I  am  His  branch, — I  want  nothing  more, — now  I 
have  the  everlasting  Vine."  Then,  when  you  get 
alone  with  Him,  worship  and  adore  Him,  praise  and 
trust  Him,  love  Him  and  wait  for  His  love.  "  Thou 
art  my  Vine,  and  I  am  Thy  branch.  It  is  enough, 
my  soul  is  satisfied." 

Glory  to  His  blessed  name ! 


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Prevailing  Prayer — What  Hinders  It? 

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